
Glass 



4 ^ 



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I 

FIFTH 
EDITfOrt. 

5ECON0 
SERIES. 




OF- 

ABUflAM 




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A copy of the Lincoln Story Book will be sent 
to any address on receipt of 25c in stamps or cur- 
rency, or you can obtain a copy free by purchas- 
ing- a package of Lincoln Tea of your Druggist. 



HUMOROUS AND PATHETIC 
STORIES 



OF 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



A Collection of Anecdotes and Stories Told by and of 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN; 

Many of them Heretofore Unpublished. 



THE LINCOLN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
FORT WAYNE. INDIANA. 



coin!:- 



PREFACE. 



In presenting to the readers Lincoln's stories, 
there is a feeling- of satisfaction that they will be 
well received. No man has lived, in the history 
of this country, who holds a more sacred place in 
the minds of the people than Honest Abe Lincoln, 
as he was familiarly known. His steadfastness of 
purpose, clear discernment, and equity of judgment 
peculiarly fitted him for the high position of Chief 
Executive of this Nation at a time when the seeds 
of disunionism w^ere being scattered broadcast 
throughout the land. 

Abraham Lincoln had a marked penchant for 
story telling. There is hardly an instance in even 
the most serious of his interviews, that the familiar 
phrase "That reminds me of a story," was not 
introduced . In collecting these memoirs of Lincoln 
we are indebted to the press, to friends and to 
Barretts McClure's "Anecdotes of Abraham 
Lincoln." 






24^a'iitk 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MR. LINCOLN. 



Secretary Usher, a member of Lincoln's Cabinet, and an 
old friend of his, gives the following interesting information : 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

In person he was tall and rugged, with little semblance to 
any historic portrait, unless he might seem, in one respect, to 
justify the epithet which was given to an early English mon- 
arch. His countenance had even more of a rugged strength 
than his person. Perhaps the quality which struck the most, 
at first sight, was his simplicity of manners and conversation 
without form or ceremony of any kind, beyond that among 
neighbors. His handwriting had the same simplicity. It was 
as clear as that of Washington, but less florid. ^ He was natu- 
rally humane, inclined to pardon, and never remembering the 
hard things said against him. He was always good to the 
poor, and in his dealings with them was full of those *' kind 
little words which are of the same blood as good and holy 
deeds." Such a character awakened instinctively the sym- 
pathy of the people. They saw his fellow-feeling with them, 
and felt the kinship. With him as President, the idea of re- 
publican institutions, where no place is too high for the 
humblest, was perpetually manifest, so that his simple pres- 
ence was like a proclamation of the equality of all men. 
While social in nature, and enjoying the flow of conversation 
he was often singularly reticent. Modesty was natural to such 
a character. As he was without affectation, so he was without 

_7__ 



pretence or jealousy. No person, civil or military, can com- 
plain that he appropriated to himself any honors that be- 
longed to another. To each and all he anxiously gave the 
credit that was due. His humor has also become a proverb. 
He insisted, sometimes, that he had no invention, but only a 
memory. He did not forget the good things that he heard, 
and was never without a familiar story to illustrate his mean- 
ing. At times his illustrations had a homely felicity, argu- 
ment, which he always enforced with a certain intensity of 
manner and voice. He was original in mind as in character. 
His style was his own, formed on no model and springing 
directly from himself. While failing, often, in correctness, 
it was sometimes unique in beauty and in sentiment. There are 
passages which will live always. It is not exaggerating to 
say that, in weight and pith, suffuse in a certain poetical color, 
they call to mind -Bacon's Essays. Such passages make an 
epoch in state papers. No presidential message or a speech 
from a throne ever had anything of such touching reality. 
They are harbingers of the great era of humanity. "While 
uttered from the heights of power, they reveal a simple, unaf- 
fected trust in Almighty God, and speak to the jDeople as equal 
to equal. 

There was one thing in which latterly he was disposed to 
conduct the public mind. It was in the treatment of the rebel 
leaders. His policy was never announced, and, of course, it 
would always have been subject to modification, in the light 
of experience. But it is well known that, at the very moment 
of his assassination, he was occupied by thoughts of lenity 
and pardon. He was never harsh, even in speaking of Jeffer- 
son Davis, and only a few days before his end, when one who 
was privileged to speak to him in that way said: "Do not 
allow him to escape the law — he must be hanged," the Presi- 
dent replied calmly in the words which he adopted in his last 
inaugural address, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." And 

— 8~ 



when pressed again and again by the remark that the sight of 
Libby Prison made it impossible to pardon him, the President 
repeated twice over these same words, revealing unmistakably 
the generous sentiments of his heart. 



A ROMANTIC INCIDENT OF LINCOLN'S EARLY LAW 
PRACTICE. 

Having chosen the law as his futui'e calling, he devoted 
himself assiduously to its mastery, contending at every step 
with adverse fortune. During this period of study, he for 
some time found a home under the hospitable roof of one Arm- 
strong, a farmer who lived in a log house, some eight miles 
from the village of Petersburg, in Menard county. Here young 
Lincoln would master his lessons by the fire light of the cabin, 
and then walk to town for the purpose of recitation. This man 
Armstrong was himself poor, but he saw the genius struggling 
in the young etudent, and oiDened to him his rough home and 
bid him welcome to his coarse fare. How Lincoln graduated, 
with promise — how he more than fulfilled that promise — how 
honorably he acquitted himself, alike on the battlefield, in 
defending our border settlements against the ravages of sav- 
age foes, and in the halls of our national legislature, are 
matters of history. But one little incident of a more private 
nature, standing as it does as a sort of sequel to some things 
already alluded to, I deem worthy of record. Some few years 
since the oldest son of Mr. Lincoln's old friend Armstrong, 
the chief support of his widowed mother — the good old man 
having some time previously passed from earth — was arrested 
on the charge of murder. A young man had been killed dur- 
ing a riotous melee in the night time, at a camp meeting, and 
one of his associates stated that the death wound was inflicted 



by young Armstrong. A preliminary examinatian was gone 
into, at which the accuser testifiei so positively that there 
seemed no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner and, therefore, he 
was held for trial. As is too often the case, the bloody act 
caused an undue degree of excitement in the public mind. 
Every improper incident in the life of the prisoner, each act 
which bore the least semblance of rowdyism, each school boy 
quarrel, was suddenly remembered and magnified, until they 
pictured him a fiend of the most horrid hue. As these rumors 
spread abroad, they were received as gospel, and a feverish 
desire for vengeance seized upon the infuriated populace, while 
only prison bars prevented a horrible death at the hands of a 
mob. The events were heralded in the newspapers, painted in 
the highest colors, accompanied by rejoicing over the cer- 
tainty of punishment being meted out to the guilty party. The 
prisoner, overwhelmed by the circumstances in which he found 
himself placed, fell into a melancholy condition, bordering 
upon despair; and the widowed mother, looking through her 
tears, saw no cause for hope from earthly aid. 

At this juncture, the widow received a letter from Mr. 
Lincoln, volunteering his services in an effort to save the 
youth from the impending stroke. Gladly was his aid ac- 
cepted, although it seemed impossible for even his sagacity to 
prevail in such a desperate case ; but the heart of the attorney 
was in his work and he set about it with a will that knev/ no 
such word as fail. Feeling that the poisoned condition of the 
public mind was such as to preclude the possibility of im- 
paneling an impartial jury in the court having jurisdiction, 
he procured a change of venue and a postponement of the trial. 
He then went studiously to work unraveling the history of 
the case, and satisfied himself that his client was the victim' of 
malice, and that the statements of the accuser were a tissue of 
falsehoods. When the trial was called the prisoner, pale and 
emaciated, with hopelessness written on every feature, and 

-10- 



accompanied by his half-hoping", half-despairingf mother, 
whose only hope was in a mother's belief of her son's inno- 
cence, in the justice of the God she worshiped, and in the 
noble counsel, who, without hope of fee, or reward upon earth, 
had undertaken the cause, took his seat in the prisoner's box, 
and with a "stony firmness," listened to the reading of the 
indictment. 

Lincoln sat quietly by, while the large auditory looked on 
him as though wondering what he could say in defense of one 
whose guilt they regarded as certain. The examination of 
the witnesses for the state was begun, and a well arranged 
mass of evidence, circumstantial and positive, was introduced, 
which seemed to impale the prisoner beyond the possibility of 
extrication. The counsel for the defense propounded but few 
questions, and those of a character which excited no uneasi- 
ness on the pert of the prosecution — merely, in most cases, re- 
quiring the witness to be definite as to time and place. When 
the evidence of the prosecution was ended, Lincoln introduced 
a few VvTitnesses to remove some erroneous impressions in re- 
gard to the previous character of his client, who, though some- 
what rowdyish, had never been known to commit a vicious act; 
and to show that a greater ill feeling existed between the 
accuser and the accused than the accused and the deceased. 
The prosecutor felt that the case was a clear one, and his 
opening speech was brief and formal. Lincoln arose, while a 
deathly silence pervaded the vast audience, and in a clear but 
moderate tone began his argument. Slowly and carefully he 
reviewed the testimony, pointing out the hitherto unobserved 
discrepancies in the statements of the principal witness. That 
which seemed plain and plausible, he made to appear crooked 
as a serpent's path. The witness had stated that the alfair 
took place at a certain hour in the evening, and that, by the 
aid of the brightly shining moon, he saw the prisoner inflict 
the death blow v/ith a slung-shot. 

-11- 



Mr. Lincoln showed that at the hour referred to, the moon 
had not yet appeared above the horizon, and consequently 
the whole tale was a fabrication. An almost instantaneous 
change seemed to have been wrought in the minds of his 
auditors, and the verdict of "not guilty" was at the end of 
every tongue. But the advocate was not content with this 
intellectual achievement. His whole being had for months 
been bound up in this work of gratitude and mercy, and, as 
the lava of the overcharged crater bursts from its imprison- 
ment, so great thoughts and burning words leaped from the 
soul of the eloquent Lincoln. He drew a picture of the perjur- 
er, so horrid and ghastly that the accuser could sit under it 
no longer, but reeled and staggered from the court room, 
while the audience fancied they could see the brand upon his 
brow. Then in words of thrilling pathos, Lincoln appealed to 
the jurors, as fathers of sons who might become fatherless, 
and as husbands of wives who might be widowed, to yield to 
no previous impressions, no ill-founded prejudice, but to do his 
client justice; and as he alluded to he debt of gratitude he 
owed to the boy's sire, tears were seen to fall from many eyes 
unused to weep. It was near night when he concluded by say- 
ing, that if justice was done, as he believed it would be, before 
the sun should set, it would shine upon his client as a free 
man. , 

The jury retired, and the court adjourned for the day. 
Half an hour had not elapsed, when an officer of the court 
volunteered the announcement that the jury had returned to 
their seats. All repaired immediately to the courtroom and 
while the prisoner was being brought from the jail, the court 
room was filled to overflowing with the citizens of the town. 
When the prisoner and his mother entered, silence reigned as 
completely as though the house was empty. The foreman of 
the jury, in answer to the usual inquiry from the court, deliv- 
ered the verdict of "Not Guilty.'* The widow dropped into 

—12— 



the arms of her son, who lifted her up, and told her to look 
upon him as before, free and innocent. Then, with the words, 
"where is Mr. Lincoln?" he rushed across the the room and 
grasped the hand of his deliverer, while his heart was too full 
for utterance. Lincoln turned his eyes toward the west, where 
the sun still lingered in view, and turning to the youth, said: 
"It is not yet sundown, and you are free." I confess that my 
cheeks were not wholly unwet by tears, and I turned from the 
affecting seene. As I cast a glance behind, I saw Abraham 
Linceln obeying the divine injunction of comforting the widow 
and the fatherless. 



AS A LAWYER. 



Lincoln belonged to the reasoning class of men. He dealt 
with his own mind and turned things over there, seeking the 
truth until he established it and it became a conviction. As a 
lawyer, he never claimed everything for his client. He stated 
something of both sides of the case. I have known him to 
say, "Now, I don't think my client is entitled to the whole of 
what he claims. In this point or that point he may have been 
in error. He must rebate something of his claim." He was 
also very careful about giving personal offense, and if he had 
something severe to say, he would turn to his opponent or to 
the person about to be referred to and say: "I don't like to 
use this language," or "I am sorry that I have to be hard on 
that gentleman," and, therefore, what he did say was thrice as 
effective, and very seldom wounded the person attacked. 
Throughout Mr. Lincoln's life that kind of wisdom attended 
him, and made him the great and skillful politician he was in 
handling people. He had a smooth, manly, pleasing voice, 
and when arguing in court that voice attracted the jury, and 
did not tire them, so that they followed his argument through- 
out. He was not a graceful man. Ho would lean on the back 

—13- 



o! a chair, or put the chair behind him, or stand hipshotten, 
or with arms akimbo, but yet there was a pleasure in listening 
to him, because he seemed so unmercenary, 

HIS AMBITION. 

I do not think Lincoln was ambitious at all. It seems to 
me that his object in life was no greater than to make a living 
for his family. The dream of avarice never crossed him. He 
took no initial steps to reach the presidency or the senate, 
and was rather pushed forward than a volunteer. I can't 
recall in those days when he attended court that he ever spoke 
about himself or took any satisfaction in victory over an ad- 
versary, or repeated any good thing he had done or said. As 
a partisan he always reasoned for the good of the party, and 
not concerning his own advancement. Consequently, when 
the people had made up their minds that there was talent in 
him of a remarkable kind, they came to his assistance with a 
spontaneity and vehemence that was electrical. He reaped 
the great reward of unselfishness as few men have ever done. 



ABRAHAM AND THE LADIES. 

He was almost wholly possessed with a sense of duty and 
responsibility. He was not shy in the company of ladies, but 
I don't think he thought anything about them until they came 
before him as guests and callers. Some of the women gave 
him a good deal of trouble. Some of his wife's people were 
Southerners, and public attacks were made on them ; as, for 
instance, it was said that one of them had gone through the 
lines with a pass from Mr. lyincoln, and taken a quantity of 
medicine, etc. I remember that an old partner in law of mine 
brought his wife to Washington, and they wanted to see Mi\ 
Lincoln. There was a great crowd awaiting around his door, 



but the door-keeper admitted us at once, and Mr. Lincoln 
came forward with both hands extended and shook the lady's 
hand, rather divining that she was the wife of my partner. He 
told a little anecdote or two and said some quaint things, and 
when the lady came out she said to me: "Why, I don't think 
that he is an ugly man at all. " He was almost a father to his 
wife. ^ He seemed to be possessed of the notion that she was 
under his protection, and that he must look out for her like a 
wilful child. 



HIS NATURE. 



I can recall a certain incident that illustrates Lincoln's 
nature. Somewhere near the town of Paris there was a Whig 
population with strong prejudices in favor of protecting slav- 
ery. These people liked Lincoln and believed in him, and saw 
with pain that he was becoming a Radical. They came to him 
during court and said: *'We want you to come up and talk 
to us. We don't want to quarrel with you, and will hear all 
you have to say; but something must be wrong when as fair a 
man as you is drifting over to Abolitionism." "Very well." 
said Mr. Lincoln, "I will come up such a day and give you 
my views. " Lincoln went on that day, and made a temperate, 
sweet-toothed, cordial address on the issues of the day. He 
said: "My friends, I perceive you will not agree with me, but 
that ought to make no difference in our relations with each 
other. You hear me, as you always have, with kindness, and 
I shall respect your views, ^as I hope you will mine." They 
heard Lincoln through, and dismissed him with respect, but 
did not agree with hira. There was another person up there 
by the name of Stephens, who was lame, and he undertook to 
emphasize Lincoln's views, and put his foot in it. A certain 
doctor, of Southern origin, interrupted Stephens, and said he 
would thrash him. Stephens turned around and replied: 

—15— 



"Well, doctor, you can thrash me or do anything' of a violent 
sort to me, if you don't give me any of your pills." Lincoln 
used to tell"1^his with a great deal of delight. You see, in those 
days the settlers in Illinois would live on the edges of the 
timber, which grew in spots and patches, and left naked prairie 
between the groves. It was at such a place that Lincoln made 
that speech on the slavery question. 



LINCOLN^S TEMPER. 

•'I remember one event showing Lincoln's temper. He had 
issued a proclamation stating that when one-tenth of 1}he voters 
of a Congressional district, or a part of a state, resumed their 
position in the Union, and elected a member of Congress, they 
should be recognized as much as the whole constituency. 
Chase remarked: 'Instead of saying voters, I suggest that 
you put it citizens!' I saw in a minute what Chase was driv- 
ing at. This question had arisen, as to who were citizens, and 
Mr. S&tes, the Attorney General, had pronounced negroes to 
be citizens. The law of the administration, therefore, was, 
that negroes were included in citizenship. As I walked away 
from the Cabinet that day Chase was at my side, and he said: 
*Mr. Usher, we must stick to it that citizens, and not voters, 
be named in that proclamation.' I turned about when we had 
got to the Treasury, and walked back on the plank which at 
that time led to the White house, and I told Lincoln that 
Chase was very pertinacious about the word citizen instead of 
voters. *Yes,' said Lincoln, 'Chase thinks that the negroes, as 
citizens, will vote to make him President, ' 



HIS SADNESS. 



Lincoln was, in his fixed quality, a man of sadness. If he 
were looking out of a window when alone, and you happened 



to be passing by and caught his eye, you would generally see 
in it an expression of distress. 

He was one of the greatest men who ever lived. It has 
now been many years since I was in his Cabinet and, some of 
the things which happened there have been forgotten, and the 
whole of it is rather dreamy. But Lincoln's extraordinary 
personality is still one of the most distinct things in my mem- 
ory. He was as wise as a serpent. He had the skill .of the 
gi'eatest statesman in the world. Everything he handled 
came to success. Nobody took up his work and brought it to 
the same perfection. 

HIS KINDNESS. 

Lincoln had more patience than anybody around him. 
Sometimes, when he was considering a thing of importance in 
the Cabinet, his little son would push open the door and come 
in with a drum and beat it up and down the room, giving us 
all a certain amount of misery. Mr. Lincoln, however, never 
ordered the boy to be taken out, but would say: *'My son. 
don't you think you can make a little less noise?" That 
Thaddeus was a stubborn little chap. We could not make 
up with him when he got offended. Robert was as well be- 
haved a young man as 1 have ever seen. He went to Hartford 
and graduated, and we entertained high respect for him. 



HE KEPT HIS VOW. 

In 1831 Lincoln saw in New Orleans a colored girl sold at 
auction. The scene filled his soul with indignation and hor- 
ror. Turning to his companions he said: "Boys, if I ever 
get a chance to hit slavery, I'll hit it hard." Thirty-one 
years afterwards the chance came, the oath was kept and 
4,000,000 slaves, men, women and children, were restored to 
liberty. 

—17— 



\ 

LINCOLN'S LAUGH. 

Lincoln had a great laugh — a high musical tenor — and 
when he had listened to or told a story which particularly 
pleased him, he would walk up and down the room, with one 
hand on the small of his back and the other rubbing his hair 
in all directions, and make things ring with laughter. 



LINCOLN AND SEWARD. 

I think that ^Lincoln had a real fondness and admiration 
for Seward. There was no suspicion of rivalry whatever be- 
tween them. Seward supported Lincoln ir every position or 
scruple that he had. My impression is, that those two men 
were as cordial and intimate as any two persons of such 
prominence could be. v 

After Caleb Smith, of Indiana, was made a member of the 
Cabinet, he desired me to be his Assistant Secretary. Mr.' 
Smith was nominated District Judge of the United States, in 
course of time, and then Mr, Lincoln promoted me at Smith's 
request. I was in the Cabinet somewhat more than two 
years, and a part of the time was under Mr. Johnson. That 
Cabinet was very ill assorted. My predecessor. Judge Smith, 
was a kind man, but without much discrimination as to his 
followers. There hardly was ever such a thing as a regular 
Cabinet meeting in the sense of form. Under Johnson and 
under Grant, I have seen a table with chairs placed in regular 
order around it, as if for Cabinet council. Nothing of that 
kind ever occurred in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. Seward would 
come in and lie down on a settee. Stanton hardly ever staid 
more than five or ten minutes. Sometimes Seward would tell 
the President the outline of some paper he was writing on a 
State matter. Lincoln generally stood up and walked about. 
In fact, every member of that Cabinet ran his own department 

-18— 



^n his own way. I don't suppose that such a historic period 
was ever so simply operated from the center of powers. Lin- 
coln trusted all his subordinates and they worked out their 
own performances. I regard Seward as, on the whole, the 
strong man of the Cabinet, the counsel of the President. 



LINCOLN AND MRS. FREMONT. 

Well, there was the case of John Fremont. He had made 
up his mind to run a little enterprise of his own. When he 
got into Missouri he soon quarreled with Frank Blair, and 
Montgomery Blair started on to St. Louis. Meantime Mrs. 
Fremont came East, passing Blair on the road, and the same 
night she arrived went up to the President. She demanded to 
know what Montgomery Blair had gone to Missouri for. Mr. 
Lincoln said he didn't know. "Has he gone out to remove 
my husband?" said Mrs. Fremont. **You cannot remove 
Gen. Fremont. He would not be removed." Mr. Lincoln 
instantly began to talk about the difficulties of making a jour- 
ney from St. Louis to Washington alone. Three or four 
times during the conversation she repeated, "Gen. Fremont 
can not be removed." Lincoln evaded that part of the talk 
every time, and she left unsatisfied." 



HOW HE BECAME PRESIDENT. 

Mr. Lincoln became President mainly on account of his 
debate with Douglas. He had never been in any great promi- 
nence as an office holder. His thorough-going devotion to 
his party brought him universal good-will, however, and he 
grew so harmoniously into the advocacy of Republican prin- 
ciples and opposition to Douglas' notion of squatter sover- 
eignty, that there was a general desire to see him come for- 
ward and debate with Douglas. I can tell you something in- 



teresting about the debate. Lincoln had no money. He was 
in no position to match a man of Douglas' financial resources. 
The people in Lincoln's following, however, put their hands 
in their pockets and subscribed for a band of music to appear 
with him, and that band was procured in Indiana. They put 
the band on a wagon to send it by the roads from point to 
point of meeting. Douglas meantime came on to New York 
and borrowed $100,000. I think he got some of it from Ben. 
Wood and Fernando Wood. He then took a special train of 
cars and made a sort of triumphal tour of the State, design- 
ing to carry the senatorship by storm. Lincoln said after the 
contest was over, with a certain serious grimness, *'I reckon 
that the campaign has cost me fully $250." It was generally 
understood in the West that the same campaign cost Douglas 
$100,000. Lincoln's speeches against Douglas were extempo- 
raneous, and he never revised them. My impression is that 
young McCullagh, now an editor in St. Louis, was the steno- 
grapher of Lincoln's speeches. Douglas did revise his 
remarks. They met seven times, if I remember. Lincoln rea- 
soned so closely and carefully on Douglas' false statements 
that he came out of the campaign covered with respect, and 
instantly the movement started to make Lincoln President. I 
think it is due to Mr. Seward's memory to say that his ex- 
treme views on the slavery question helped to beat him. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST TALK. 

With friends after receiving telegram of his nomination 
for the first time. 

(This telegram was received at the Journal office in Spring- 
field. Immediately everybody wanted to shake his hand, and 
so long as he was willing they congratulated ) 

Gentlemen: (with a twinkle in his eye) You had 
better come up and shake my hand while you can; honors 
—20— 



elevate some men, you know. Well, gentlemen, there is a 
little short woman at our house, who is probably more 
interested in this dispatch than X am, and if you vdll ex- 
cuse me, I will take it up and let her see it." 



VERY CARELESS. 

Lincoln was too careless. He would go out of his house 
at night and walk over to the War Department, where Stan- 
ton was receiving dispatches, unattended. I said to him : 
"Lincoln, you have no business to expose yourself in this 
way/ It is known that you go out at midnight and return 
here sometimes at two o'clock in the morning from the War 
Department. It would be very easy to kill you." The Presi- 
dent replied that if anybody desired to assassinate him he did 
not suppose any amount of care would save him. 



HIS PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION. 

•'Lincoln would have made, says Mr. Usher, "a powerful 
white Republican party in every Southern State. He had 
that in him which would have made the Southern people sup- 
I^ort him in preference to the radical Northern politicians. 
Lincoln would have said in private to their leaders, 'You will 
have to stand in with me and help me out; otherwise Sumner 
and Stevens and those fellows will beat us both.' He would 
have said, 'You go back home and start some schools your- 
selves for the negroes, and put them on the route to citizenship. 
Let it be your own work. Make some arrangements to give 
them some land ultimately out of the public domain in your 
States. In that way you will have them your friends politic- 
ally, and your prosperity will not be embarrassed.' Only 
Mr. Lincoln could have carried out this platform. His tem- 
perament, eminence and quality all adapted him for such a 
great part.'* 

— 21 — 



MR. LINCOLN'S IMPORTANT LETTER. 

"Old time politicians," says a writer, ''will recall the 
heated political campaign of 1843 in the neig-hboring" State of 
Illinois. The chief interest in the campaign lay in the race 
ior Congress in the capitol district, which was between Har- 
din — fiery, eloquent and impetuous Democrat, — and Lincoln — 
plain, practical and ennobled Whig. The world knows the 
result: Lincoln was elected. 

' 'It is not so much with his election as with the manner in 
which he secured the nomination with which we have to deal. 
Before that ever memorable spring Lincoln vascillated be- 
tween the courts of Springfield, rated as a plain, honest, logi- 
cal Whig, with no ambition higher, politically, than to 
occupy some good home office. Late in the fall of 1842 his 
name began to be mentioned in connection with congressional 
aspirations, which fact greatly annoyed the leaders of his po- 
litical party, who had already selected as the Whig candidate 
(mo Baker, afterward the gallant Colonel, who fell so bravely 
and died such an honorable death on the battle-field at Ball's 
Bluff, in 1862. Despite all efforts of his opponents within 
his party the name of the 'gaunt rail-splitter' was hailed with 
acclaim by the masses, to whom he had endeared himself by 
his witticisms, honest tongue and quaint philosophy when on 
the stump or mingling with them in their homes. 

The convention which met in early spring in the city of 
Springfield, was to be composed of the usual number of dele- 
gates. The contest for the nomination was spirited and ex- 
citing. A few weeks before the meeting of the convention the 
fact was found by the leaders that the advantage lay with 
Lincoln, and that, unless they pulled some very fine wires, 
nothing could save Baker. They attempted to play the game 
that has so often won, by 'convincing' delegates under in- 
tructions for Lincoln to violate them and vote for Baker. 

—22— 



They apparently succeeded. 'The best laid plans of men and 
mice aft gang^ aglee;' so it was in this case. Two days before 
the convention Lincoln received an intimation of this, and late 
at night indited the following letter. The letter was addressed 
to Martin Morris, who resides at -Petersburg, an intimate 
Mend of his, and by him circulated among those who were 
instructed for him at the county convention. It had the 
desired effect. The convention met, the scheme of the con- 
spirators tniscarried, Lincoln was triumphantly elected, thus 
paving the way for his more extended and brilliant conquests 
This letter, Lincoln has often told his friends, gave him ulti- 
mately the Chief Magistracy of the Nation. He has also said 
that, had he been beaten before the convention, he would have 
been forever obscured. The following is a verbatim copy of 
the epistle: 

April 14, 1843. 
"'Friend Morris: — I have heard it intimated that 
Baker has been attempting to get you or Miles, or both of 
you, to violate the instructions of the meeting that ap- 
pointed you, and to go for him. I have insisted, and still 
insist, that this cannot be true. Surely Baker would not 
do the like. As well might Hardin ask me to vote for him 
in the convention. Again, it is said there will be an at- 
tempt to get up instructions in your county requiring you 
to go for Baker. This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, 
why might not I fly from the decision against me in San- 
gamon, and get up instructions to their delegates to go for 
me? There are at least 1,200 Whigs in the county that 
took no part, and yet I would as soon stick my head into 
the fire as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get 
the nomination by such extraordinary means, all harmony 
in the district would inevitably be lost. Honest Whigs 
(and very nearly all of them are honest) would not quietly 
abide such enormities. I repeat, such an attempt on 
—23— 



Baker's part can not be true. Write me at Springfield 
how the matter is. Don't show or speak of this letter.' 

"Mr. Morris did show the letter, and Mr. Lincoln always 
thanked his stars that he did.' " 



MR. LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

(Delivered March 4, 1865, at Washington.) 
Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated into the Presidential office 
on the 4th of March, 1865. An immense crowd was in attend- 
ance — a crowd, of affectionate friends, not doubtful of the 
President, and not doubtful of one another and the future, as 
at the first inauguration. Chief Justice Chase administered 
the oath of office, and then Mr. Lincoln read his inaugural 
address, concerning which it has been well said that it was a 
paper whose Christian sentiments and whose reverent and 
pious spirit has not a parallel among the State papers of the 
American presidents. It showed the President still untouched 
by resentment, still brotherly in his feelings toward the ene- 
mies of the government, and still profoundly conscious of the 
overruling power of Providence in national affairs. The 
address is as follows: 

"Fellow Countrymen: At this second appearing 
to take the oath of the Presidential office, thei^ is less 
occasion for an extended address than there was at first. 
Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be 
pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the 
expiration of four years, during which public declarations 
have been constantly called forth from every point and 
phase of the great contest, which still absorbs the atten- 
tion and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is 
now could be present'ed. 

• "The progress of o]ilr arms, upon which all else chiefly 
deprtuls, iy as well known to the pu)»lic as to myself; -vid 
—24— 



it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to 
all. ' With high hope for the future, no prediction in re- 
gard to it is ventured. 

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago 
ail thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil 
war. All dreaded it ; all sought to avoid it. While the 
inaugural address was being delivered from this place, 
devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, 
insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it 
without war— seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the 
effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but 
one of them would make war rather than let the nation 
survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it 
perish ; and the war came. One-eighth of the whole popu- 
lation were colored, slaves, not distributed generally over 
the Union, but localized in ;he southern part of it. These 
slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All 
knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. 
To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was the 
otjject for which the insurgents would rend the Union, 
even by war, while the government claimed no right to do 
more than to" restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 

"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or 
duration which it has already attained. Neither antici> 
pated that the cause of conflict might cease with, or even 
before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for 
an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and 
astounding. 

"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same 
God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may 
seem strange that men should ask a just God's assistance 
in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's 
faces ; but Ipt us judge not, that we be not .iudged. The 
prayerF could not be answered f'lV '"nc Al- 



mighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world 
because of offense, for it must needs be that offenses come: 
but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.* If we 
shall suppose that American slavery is one of these 
offenses, which in the providence of God must needs come, 
but which, having continued through his appointed time, 
he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North 
and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by 
whom the offense came, shall we discern there in any de- 
parture from those divine attributes which the believers in 
a living God always ascribe to him? 

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God 
wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil 
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with 
the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword, 
as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be 
said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether. ' 

" With malice toward none, with charity for all, with 
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,* let 
us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the 
nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle, and for his widow and orphans, to do all which 
may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations." 



IN AT THE FINISH. 

Crossing a field one day, President Lincoln, it is said, was 
pursued by an angry bull. "He made for the fence," says 
"Life's Calendar," "but soon discovered that the bull was 
overtaking him. He then began to run around a hay-stack in 

—26— 



the Held and the bull pursued him, but in making the short 
circles around the stack Lincoln was the faster, and instead of 
the bull catching him, he caught the bull and grabbed him by 
the tail. It was a firm grip and a controlling one. He began 
to kick the bull, and the bull bellowed with agony and daslied 
across the field, Lincoln hanging to his tail and kicking him 
at every jump, and as they flew along Lincoln yelled at the 
bull: "Darn you, who began this fight I" 



THE UGLIEST MAN HE EVER MET. 

It is said that Mr. Lincoln was aJways ready to join in a 
laugh at his own expense, concerning which he was indiffer- 
ent. Many of his friends will recognize the following story — 
the incident having actually occurred — which Lincoln always 
told with great glee : 

"In the days when I used to be on the circuit court," said 
Lincoln, "I was accosted in the cars by a stranger, who said : 

'' 'Excuse me, sir, but I have an article in my possession 
which belongs to you.' 

"'How is that?" I asked, considerably astonished. 

"The stranger took a jack-knife ^rom his pocket. 'This 
knife,' said he, 'was placed in my hands some years ago, with 
the injunction that I was to keep it until I found a man uglier 
than myself. I have carried it from that time to this. Allow 
me to say, sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to the 
roperty.'" 

MR. LINCOLN'S KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION. 

"President Lincoln," says the Hon. W. D. Kell, "was a 
large and many-sided man, and yet so simple that no one, 
not even a child, could approach him without feeling that Iv 
had found in him a sympathizing friend. I rememl>er that i 
apprised Mr. Lincoln of the fact that a lad, the son of one o*" 

—27— 



ray townsmen, had served a year on board the gunboat 
Ottawa, and had been in two important engagements : in the 
first as a powder monkey, when he conducted himself with 
such coolness that he had been chosen as captain's messenger 
in the second ; and I suggested to the President that it was in 
his power to send to the Naval School, annually, three boys 
who had served at least a year in the navy. 

"He at once wrote on the back of a letter from the com- 
mander of the Ottawa, which I had handed to him, to the 
Secretary of the Navy: "If the appointments for this year 
have not yet been made, let this boy be appointed.' 

"The appointment had not been made, and I brought it 
home with me. It directed the lad to report for examination 
in July. Just as he was ready to start, his father, looking 
over the law, discovered that he could not report until he was 
fourteen years of age, which he would not be until September 
following. The poor child sat down and wept. He feared 
that he was not to go to the Naval School. He was, however, 
soon consoled when told that 'the President could make it 
right.' It was my fortune to meet him the next morning at 
the door of the Executive Chamber with his father. . 

"Taking by the hand the little fellow — short for his age, 
dressed in the sailor's blue pants and shirt~I advanced with 
him to the President, who sat in his usual seat, and said: 

" 'Mr. President, my young friend, Willie Bladen, finds a 
difficulty about his appointment. You have directed him to 
appear at the school in July; but he is not fourteen years of 
age.' But before I half finished, Mr. Lincoln, laying down 
his spectacles, rose and said: 

' ' ' Bless me, is that the boy that did so gallantly in those 
two battles ? Why, I feel that I should bow to him, and not 
he to me.' The little fellow had made his graceful bow. 

"Th,e President took the papers at once, and as soon as 
he learned that a postponement until September would ^v.mm.^ 



made the order that the lad should report in that month. 
Then putting his hand on Willie's head, he said: 

**Now, my boy, go home and have good fun during the 
two months, for they are about the last holiday you will get.' 
The little fellow bowed himself out, feeling that the President 
of the United States, though a very great man, was one that 
he would nevertheless like to have a game of romps with." 



GAVE A RIGHTFUL DECISION. 

Attorney-General Bates was once remonstrating with the 
President against the appointment of a western man of indif- 
ferent reputation as a lawyer to a judicial position of con- 
siderable importance. 

"Well, now, Judge," returned Mr. Lincoln, "I think you 

are rather too hard on . Besides that, I must tell you 

he did me a good turn long ago. When I took to the law, I 
was walking to court one morning, with some ten or twelve 

miles of bad road before me, when overtook me in his 

wagon. 

"'Hello, Lincoln,' said he, *gomg to the court house? 
Come in and I will give you a seat.' 

"Vv^ell, I got in and went on reading his papers. 

Presently the wagon struck a stump on one side of the rOad ; 
then it hopped off to the other. I looked out and saw the driver 
was jerking from side to side in his seat; so said I, 'Judge, I 
think 'your coachman has been taking a drop too much this 
morning.' 

" 'Well, I declare, Lincoln,' said he, 'I should not much 
wonder if you are right, for he has nearly upset me half a 
dozen times since starting.' So putting his head out of the 
window, he shouted, 'Why, you infernal scoundrel, you are 
drunk 1' 

—29— 



"Upon which, pulling up his horses and turning round 
with great gravity, the coachman said, *BedadI but that's the 
first rightful decision your honor has given for the last 
twelve months 1' " ^ 



GOD WANTED THE CHURCH FOR SOLDIERS. 

Among the numerous applicants who visited the White 
House one day was a well-dressed lady. She came forward 
without apparent embarrassment in her air or manner, and 
addressed the President. Giving her a very close and scruti* 
nizing look, he said : 

"Well, madam, what can I do for you?" 

She told him that she lived in Alexandria; that the church 
where she v/orshipped had been taken for a hospital. 

"What church, madam?" Mr. Lincoln asked, in a quick, 
nervous manner. 

"The Church," she replied; "and as there are only 

two or three wounded soldiers in it, I came to see if you would 
not let us have it, as we want it very much to worship God in." 

"Madam, have you been to see the Surgeon at Alexandria 
about this matter?" 

* ' Well » we put him there to attend to just such business , and 
it is reasonable to suppose that he knows better what should 
be done under the circumstances than I do. See here I You 
say you live in Alexandria; probably you own property there. 
How much will you give to assist in building a hospital?" 

"You know, Mr. Lincoln, our property is very much em- 
barrassed by the war; — so, really, I could hardly afford to 
give much for such a purpose." 

"Well, madam, I expect we shall have another fight soon, 
and my candid opinion is, God wants that church for poor, 
wounded Union soldiers as much as he does for secesli people to 
worship in. ' ' Turningto his table, he said , quite abruptly ," You 
will excuse me; lean do nothing for you. Good day, madam." 



SIGNING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

The Emancipation Proclamation was taken to Mr. Lin- 
coln at noon on the first day of January, 1863, by Secretary 
Seward and Frederick, his son. *As it lay unrolled before 
him, Mr. Lincoln took a pen, dipped it in ink, moved his hand 
to the place for the signature, held for a moment, and then re- 
moved his hand and dropped the pen. After a little hesitation 
he ag-ain took up the pen and went through the same movement 
as before. Mr. Lincoln then turned to Mr. Seward and said : 

"I have been shaking hands since nine o'clock this morn- 
ing and my right arm is almost paralyzed. If my name ever 
goes into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul is 
in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all 
who examine the document hereafter will say, 'He hesitated.' 

He then turned to the table, took up the pen again, slowly 
and firmly wrote "Abraham Lincoln," with which the whole 
world is now familiar. He then looked up, smiled and said: 
"That will do." 

COULDNT MAKE A MINISTER. 

Mr. Lincoln is credited with the following anecdote : 
*'Once, in Springfield, I was going off on a short journey, 
and reached the depot a little ahead of time. Leaning against 
the fence, just outside the depot, was a little darkey boy whom 
I knew, named Dick, busily digging with his toe in a mud 
puddle. As I came up I said, 'Dick, what are you about?' 
" 'Making a church,' said he. 
" *A church?' said I; 'what do you mean ?' 
" ' Why, yes,' said Dick, pointing with his toe, 'don't you 
see; there is the shape of it; there's the steps and front door 
— here the pews where the folks set— and there^s the pulpit?' 
"'Yes, I see,' said I, 'but why don't you make a minister?' 
" 'Laws,' answered Dick with a grin, 'I hain't got mud 
enough !'* 

—31- 



A SOMEWHAT DOUBTFUL ABUTMENT. 

In Abbott's " History of the Civil War," the following 
story is told as one of Lincoln's "hardest hits." "I once 
knew," said Lincoln, "a sound churchman by the name of 
Brown, who was a member of a very sober and pious commit- 
tee having in charge the erection of a bridge over a danger- 
ous and rapid. river. Several architects failed, and at last 
Brown said he had a friend named Jones, who had built sev- 
eral bridges and undoubtedly could build that one. So Mr. 
Jones was called in. "> 

*' 'Can you build this bridge?' inquired the committee. 

" 'Yes,' replied Jones, 'or any other. I could build a 
bridge to the infernal regions, if necessary!' 

"The committee were shocked, and Brown felt called upon 
to defend his friend. 'I know Jones so well,' said he, 'and he 
is so honest a man and so good an architect, that if he states 
soberly and positively that he can build a bridge to — to — why, 
I believe it; but I feel bound to say that I have my doubts 
about the abutment on the infernal side." ^ * 

*'So," said Mr. Lincoln, "when politicians told me that 
the northern and southern wings of the Democracy could be 
harmonized, why, I believed them, of course; but I always had 
my doubts about the 'abutment' on the other side." 



MR. LINCOLN'S POWER OF ENDURANCE. 

On Monday before the assassination, when the President 
w^as on his return from Richmond, he stopped at City Point. 
Calling upon the head surgeon at that place, Mr. Lincoln told 
him that he wished to visit ail the hospitals under his charge, 
and shake hands with every soldier. The surgeon asked if he 
knew what he was undertaking, there being five or six thous- 
and soldiers at that place, and it would be quite a tax upon 
his strength to visit all the wards and shake hands with every 

—32— 



soldier. Mr. Lincoln answered, with a smile, he ''guessed he 
was equal to the task; at any rate he would try, and go as 
tar as he could; he should never probably, seethe boys again, 
and he wanted them to know that he appreciated what they had 
done for their country." 

Finding it useless to try to dissuade him, the surgeon be- 
gan his rounds with the President, who walked from bed to 
bed, extending his hand to all, saying a few words of sympa- 
thy to some, making kind inquiries of others, and welcomed 
by all with the heartiest cordiality. 

As they passed along, they came to a ward in which lay a 
rebel who had been wounded and was then a prisoner. As 
the tall figure of the kindly visitor appeared in sight, he was 
recognized by the rebel soldier who, raising himself on his 
elbow in bed, watched Mr. Lincoln as he approached and, ex- 
tending his hand, exclaimed while tears ran down his cheek?: 

"Mr. Lincoln, I have long wanted to see you, to ask your 
forgiveness for ever raising my hand against the old flag." 

Mr. Lincoln was moved to tears. He heartily shook the 
hand of the repentant rebel, and assured him of his good will, 
and with a few words of kind advice, passed on. After some 
hours the tour of the various hospitals was made, and Mr. 
Lincoln returned with the soldier to his office. They had 
scarcely entered, however, when a messenger boy came, saying 
that one ward had been omitted, and "the boys" wanted to see 
the President. The surgeon, who was thoroughly tired, and 
knew Mr. Lincoln must be, tried to dissuade him from going; 
but the good man said he must go back; he would not know- 
ingly omit one; "the boys" would be so disappointed. So he 
went with the messenger, accompanied by the surgeon, and 
shook hands with the gratified soldiers, and then returned 
again to the office. 

The surgeon expressed the fear that the President's arm 
would be lame witti go much hand-shaking, saying that it 

=-33— 



certainly must ache. Mr. Lincoln smiled, and saying some- 
thing about his "strong muscles," stepped out at the open 
door, took up a very large, heavy axe which lay there by a 
log of wood, and chopped vigorously for a few moments, 
sending the chips flying in all directions; and then pausing, 
he extended his right arm to its full length, holding the axe 
out horizontally, without its even quivering as he held it. 
Strong men looked on — men accustomed to manual labor — 
could not hold that axe in that position for a moment. Re- 
turning to the office, he took a glass of lemonade, for he would 
take no stronger beverage; and while he was within, the chips 
he had chopped were gathered up and safely car^d for by the 
hospital steward, because they were "the chips that Father 
Abraham chopped." 

LINCOLN ADOPTS STANTON'S SUGGESTION. 

One night the Secretary of War, with others of the Cabi- 
net, were in the company of the President, at the Capitol, 
awaiting the passage of the final bills of Congress. In the 
intervals of reading and signing these documents, the military 
situation was considered — the lively conversation tinged by 
the confident and glowing account of General Grant of his 
mastery of the position and of his belief that a few days more 
would see Richmond in their possession, and the army of Lee 
either dispersed utterly or captured bodily — when the telegram 
from Grant was received, saying that Lee had asked aninter- 
terview with reference to peace. Mr. Lincoln was elated, and 
the kindness of his heart was manifest in intimations of favor- 
able terms to be granted to the conquered rebels. 

Stanton listened in silence, restraining his emotion, but 
at length the tide burst forth. "Mr. President," said he, 
"to-morrow is inauguration day. If you are not to be the 
President of an obedient and united people, you had better 
not be id augur ett'§d« Your work is already done, if any other 

^34— 



authority than yours is for one moment to be recognized, or 
any terms made that do not signify you are the supreme hef^d 
of the nation. If generals in the field are to negotiate peace, 
or any other chief magistrate is to be acknowledged on this 
continent, then you are not needed, and you had better not 
take the oath of office." 

' "Stanton, you are right I" said the President, his whole 
tone changing. "Let me have a pen." 

Mr. Lincoln sat down at the table, and wrote as follows : 

"The President directs me to say to you that he wishes 
you to have no conference with General Lee, unless it be for 
the capitulation of Lee's army, or on some minor or military 
matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, 
discuss , or confer upon any political question. Such questions 
the President holds in his own hands, and w'ill submit them 
to no military conferences or convention. In the meantime 
you are to press to the utmost your military advantages.' 

The President read over what he had written, and then 
said: 

**Now, Stanton, date and sign this paper, and send it to 
Grant. We'll see about this peace business.'* 

The duty was discharged only too gladly by the ener- 
getic Secretary. 



GETTING RID OF A BORE. 

President Lincoln was quite ill one winter at Washington 
and was not inclined to listen to all the bores who called at 
the White House. One day just as one of these pests had 
seated himself for a long interview, the President's physician 
happened to enter the room., and Mr. Lincoln said, holding 
out his hands : "Doctor, what are those blotches?" "That's 
variloid, or mild smallpox," said the Doctor. "They're all 
over me. It is contagious, I believe?" said Mr. Lincoln. "I just 

-35- 



jailed to see how you were," said the visitor. ''Oh I don't be 
in a hurry, sir," placidly remarked the executive. "Thank 
you, sir; I'll call again," said the visitor, making towards 
the door. "Do, sir," said the President. "Some people said 
they could not take very well to my proclamation, but now I 
have something that everybody can take." By this time the 
visitor was quite out of sight. 



HE DID NOT GET THE PASS. 

Judge Baldwin, of California, being in Washington, 
called one day on General Halleck, and, presuming upon a 
familiar acquaintance in California a few years before, 
solicited a pass outside of our lines to see a brother in 
Virginia, not thinking that he would meet with a refusal, as 
both his brother and himself were good Union men. 

' 'We have been deceived too often," said General Halleck, 
"and I regret I can't grant it." 

Judge B. then went to Stanton, and was very briefly dis- 
posed of, with the same result. Finally, he obtained an inter- 
view with Mr. Lincoln, and stated his case. 

"Have you applied to General Halleck?" inquired the 
President. 

"Yes, and met with a flat refusal," said Judge B. 

"Then you must see Stanton," continued the President. 

"I have, and with same result," was the reply. 

"Well, then," said Mr. Lincoln, with a smile, "I can do 
nothing; for you must know that I have very little influence 
with this administration. ' ' 

THE SWEARING WAS NECESSARY THEN. 

General Fisk, attending the reception at the White House, 
on one occasion saw, waiting in the ante-room, a poor old 
man from Tennessee. Sitting down beside him, he inquired 

-36- 



his errand, and learned that he had been waiting three or four 
days to get an audience, and said that on seeing Mr. Lincoln 
probably depended the life of his son, who was under sentence 
of death for some military offense. 

General Fisk wrote his case in outline on a card, and sent 
i!i in, with a special request that the President would see the 
man. In a moment the order came; and past senators, 
governors and generals, waiting impatiently, the old man 
went into the President's presence. 

He showed Mr. Lincoln his papers, and he, on taking 
^hem, said he would look into the case and give him the result 
on the following day. 

"To-morrow may be too late I My son is under sentence 
of death! The decision ought to be made now!" and the 
streaming tears told how much he was moved. 

"Come," said Mr. Lincoln, "wait a bit, and I'll tell you 
a story," and then he told the old man General Fisk's story 
about the swearing driver, as follows: 

"The General had begun his military life as a Colonel, 
and, when he raised his regiment in Missouri, he proposed to 
his men that he should do all the swearing of the regiment. 
They assented ; and for months no instance was known of the 
violation of his promise. The Colonel had a teamster named 
John Todd, who, as roads were not always the best, had some 
difficulty in commanding his temper and his tongue. John 
happened to be driving a mule team through a series of mud- 
holes a little worse than usual, when unable to restrain himself 
any longer, he burst forth into a volley of energetic oaths. The 
Colonel took notice of the offense, and brought John to account. 

"John," said he, "didn't you promise to let me do all the 
sweaT'ing of the regiment?" 

^ "Yes, I did. Colonel," he replied, "but the fact is, the 
swearing had to be done then or not at all, and y iU were not 
there to do it. ' ' 

—37— 



As he told the story, the old man forgot his boy, and both 
the President and his listener had a hearty laugh together at 
its conclusion. Then he wrote a few words which the old man 
read, and in which he found new occasion for tears; but these 
tears were tears of joy, for the words saved the life of his son. 



MR. LINCOLN AS A HORSE TRADER. 

When Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinois, he and 
a certain Judge once got to bantering one another about trad- 
ing horses; and it was agreed that the next morning at 9 
o'clock they should make a trade, the horse to be unseen up 
to that hour, and no backing out, under a forfeiture of $25.00. 

At the appointed hour the judge came up, leading the sor- 
riest looking specimen of a horse ever seen in those parts. In 
a few minutes Mr. Lincoln was seen approaching with a wooden 
saw-horse upon his shoulders. Great were the shouts and the 
laughter of the crowd, and both were greatly increased when 
Mr. Lincoln, on surveying the Judge's animal, set down his 
saw horse and exclaimed: "Well, Judge, this is the first time 
t ever got the worst of it in a horse trade." 



ADVICE TO A BACHELOR AMBASSADOR. 

Upon the betrothal of the Prince of Wales to the Princess 
Alexandria, Queen Victoria sent a letter to each of the Euro- 
pean sovereigns, and also to President Lincoln, announcing 
the fact. Lord Lyons, her ambassador at Washington, — a 
"bachelor," by the way — requested an audience with Mr. Lin- 
coln, that he might present this important document in person. 
At the time appointed he was received at the White House, in 
company with Mr. Seward. 

"May it please your Excellence," said Lord Lyons, "I 
hold in my hand an autograph letter from my royal mistress, 
Queen Victoria, which 1 have been commanded to present to 

—38— 



your Excellency. In it she informs your Excellency that her 
son, his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, is about to 
contract a matrimonial alliance with her Royal Highness, the 
Princess Alexandria of Denmark." 

After continuing in this strain for a few minutes, Lord 
Lyons tendered the letter to the President and av/aited his 
reply. It was short, simple and expressive, and consisted 
simply of the words: 

*'Lord Lyons, go thou and do likewise." 

It is doubtful if an English ambassador was ever ad- 
dressed in this manner before, and it would be interesting to 
learn what success he met with in putting the reply in diplo- 
matic language when he reported it to Her Majesty. 



HIS FIRST SPEECH. 

The following first speech of Abraham Lincoln was deliv- 
ered at Poppsville, 111., just after the close of a public sale, at 
which time and in those early days speaking was in order. 
Mr. lAncoln was then but twenty-three years of age, but being 
called for, mounted a stump and gave a concise statement of 
his policy: 

"Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens:— I presume you know 
who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been so- 
licited by my many friends to become a candidate for the leg- 
islature. My politics can be briefly stated. I am in favor of 
the internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff* 
These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, 
I shall be thankful. If not, it will be all the same." 



MR. LINCOLN'S SHORTEST AND BEST SPEECH, 

The following speech is pronounced by Mr. Lincoln him- 
self as the best one ever made by him. 

A short time before Lincoln was assassinated, two ladies 
—39— 



from Tennessee went before the President, asking- the release 
of their husbands, who were held prisoners of war at John- 
son's Islands. They were put off until the following Friday, 
when they came again, and were again put off until Saturday* 
At each of the interviews one of the ladies urged that her hus" 
band was a religious man, and on Saturday when the Presi- 
dent ordered the release of the prisoners, he said to the lady: 
"You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when 
you meet him that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, 
but that, in my opinion, .the religion that sets men to rebel 
and fight against their government, because, as they think, 
that government does not sufiaciently help some men to eat 
their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not of the sort 
of religion upon which people can get to heaven." 

LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN THE SUPREME COURT. 

The case being called, Mr. Lincoln appeared for appel- 
lant, and, according to Judge Treat, spoke as follows: ■ 

"Your honor:— This is the first case I have ever had in 
this Court, and I have examined it with great care. As the 
Court will perceive by looking at the abstract of the record, 
the only question in the case is one of authority. I have not 
been able to find any authority sustaining my side of the case, 
but J have found several cases directly in point on the other 
side. I will now give the citations and then submit the case." 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FIRST DOLLAR. 

During an evening in the executive chamber there were 
present a number of gentlemen, among them Mr. Seward. A 
point in the conversation suggesting the thought, Mr. Lincoln 
said. "Seward, you never heard, did you, how I earned my 
first dollar?" "No," said Mr. Seward. "Well," replied 
Mr. Lincoln, ' 'I was about eighteen years of age. I belonged, 

—40— 



you know, to what they called down south the * scrubs'— 
people who do not own land and slaves are nobody there. But 
we had succeeded in raising, chiefly by my labor, sufficient 
produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it down the 
river to sell. After much persuasion I got the consent of my 
mother to go, and constructed a flatboat, large enough to take 
the barrel or two of things we had gathered, with myself and 
a little bundle, down to New Orleans. A steamboat was 
comiDg down the river. We have, you know, no wharves on 
the western streams, and the custom was, if passengers were 
at any of the landings, for them to get out in a boat, the 
steamer stopping and taking them on board. I was con- 
templating my new flatboat and wondering whether I could 
improve it in any particular, when two men came down to the 
shore in carriages, with trunks, and looking at the difi"erent 
boats, singled out mine, and asked *Who owns this?' I 
answered, somewhat modestly, 'I do.' 'Will you, said one of 
them, 'take us and our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Certainly,' 
said I. I was very glad to have the opportunity of earning 
something. I supposed that each would give me two or three 
bits. The trunks were put on the flatboat, the passengers 
seated themselves on the trunks and I sculled them out to the 
steamboat. They got on board, and I lifted up their trunks 
and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put on 
steam again, when I called out that they had forgotten to pay 
me. Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar 
and threw it on the floor of my boat. I could scarcely be- 
lieve my eyes as I picked up the money. Gentlemen, you may 
think it a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me 
like a trifle; but it was a most important incident in my life. 
I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar 
in less than a day— that by honest work I had earned a 
dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was 
a more hopeful and confident being from that time." 

—41— 



HIS FIRST FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. 

Soon after Mr. Lincoln entered upon his profession at 
Springfield, he was engaged in a criminal case, in which it 
was thought there was little chance of success. Throwing all 
his powers into it, he came off victorious, and promptly 
received for his services five hundred dollars. A legal friend, 
calling upon him the next morning, found him sitting before a 
table, upon which his money was spread out, counting it over 
and over. 

"Look here. Judge," said Lincoln; "see what a heap of 
money I've got from the case. Did you ever see any- 
thing like it? Why, I never had so much money in my life 
jDef^e, 'put it all together, ' ' Then crossing his arms upon the 
t£8ibl^, his manner sobering down, he added, "I have got just 
five hundred dollars; if it were only seven hundred and fifty, 
1 would -go directly and purchase a quarter section of land, 
and settle it upon my old step-mother." 

His friend said that "if the deficiency was all he needed he 
would loan him the amount, taking his note," to which Mr. 
Lincoln instantly acceded. 

His friend then said: "Lincoln, I would not do just what 
you have indicated. Your step-mother is getting old, and will 
not probably live many years. I would settle the property 
upon her for her use during her lifetime, to revert to you upon 
her death. ' ' 

With much feeling, Mr. Lincoln replied: "I shall do no such 
thing. It is a poor return, at the best, for all the good 
woman's devotion and fidelity to me, and there is not going 
to be any halfway business about it;" and so saying, he 
gathered up his money and proceeded forthwith to carry his 
long cherished purpose into execution. 

—42— 



HOW HONEST ABE DIVIDED MONEY. 

A little fact in Lincoln's work will illustrate his ever 
present desire to deal honestly and justly with men. He had 
always a partner in his professional life, and, when he went 
out upon the circuit, this partner was usually at home. While 
out, he frequently took up and disposed of cases that were 
never entered at the office. In these cases, after receiving his 
fees, he divided the money in his pocket-book, labeling each 
sum (wrapped in a piece of paper,) that belonged to his part- 
ner, stating his name and the case on which it was received. 
He could not be content to keep an account. He divided the 
money, so that if he, by any casually, should fail of an op- 
portunity to pay it over, there could be no dispute as to the 
exact amount that was his partner's due. This may seem 
trivial, nay, boyish, but it was like Mr. Lincoln. 



MR. LINCOLN'S CHARITABLE NATURE. 

It was not possible for Mr. Lincoln to regard his clients 
simply in the light of business. An unfortunate man was the 
subjeqt of his sympathy. A Mr. Cogjdal, who related this in- 
stance to Mr. Holland, met with a financial wreck in 1843. He 
employed Mr. Lincoln as his lawyer, and at the close of the 
business gave him a note to cover the regular lawyer's fees. 
He was soon after blown up by an accidental discharge of 
powder, and lost his hand. Meeting Mr. Lincoln some time 
after the accident, on the steps of the State House, the kind 
lawyer asked him how he was getting along. 

"EEtrily enough," replied Mr. Cogdal, "I am both broken 
up in business and crippled." Then he added, "I have been 
thinking about that note of ours." 

Mr. Lincoln, who had probably known all about Mr. Cog- 
dal 's troubles and had prepared himself for the meeting, took 

-43— 



out his pocket-book, and saying, with a laugh, "Well, you 
needn't think anything more about it," handed him the note. 

Mr. Cogdal protesting, Mr. Lincoln said, "If you had the 
money I wouldn't take it," and hurried away. 

At the same date he was frankly writing about his poverty 
to his friends, as a reason for not making them a visit, and 
probably found it no easy task to take care of his family, even 
when board at the Globe Tavern was only four dollars a week. 



MR. LINCOLN AMONG THE CHILDREN. 

It was during. a visit to New York that the following inci- 
dent occurred, as related by a teacher in the Five Points House 
of Inciustry in that city. Our Sunday School in Five Points 
had assembled, one Sabbath morning, a few months since, 
when I noticed a tall and remarkable looking man enter the 
room and take a seat among us. He listened with fixed atten- 
tion to our exercises, and his countenance manifested such 
genuine interest that I approached him and suggested that he 
might be willing to say something to the children. He accepted 
the invitation with evident pleasure and coming forward began 
a simple address, which at once fascinated every little hearer 
and hushed the room into silence. His language was strkingly 
beautiful, and his tones musical with intense feeling. The 
little faces around him would droop into sad conviction as he 
uttered sentences of warning and would brighten into sunshine 
as he spoke cheerful words of promise. Once or twice he at- 
tempted to close his remarks, but the imperative shout of "Go 
on," ''Oh, do go on," would compel him to resume. As I 
looked upon the gaunt and sinewy frame of the stranger, and 
marked his powerful head and determined features, now 
touched into softness by the impressions of the moment, I felt 
an irrepressible curiosity to learn something more about him, 
and when he was leaving the room, I begged tO know his nam6. 
He courteously replied, "It is Abraham Lincoln, from Illinois." 



MR. LINCOLN'S LEGAL ACUMEN. 

Senator McDonald states that he saw a jury trial in Illi- 
nois, at which Lincoln defended an old man charged with as- 
sault and battery. No blood had been spilled, but there was 
malice in the prosecution and the chief witness was eager to 
make the most out of it. On cross-examination Lincoln gave 
him rope and drew him out, asking him how long the fight 
lasted and how much ground it covered. The witness thought 
the fight must have lasted an hour, and covered an acre of 
ground. Lincoln called his attention to the fact that nobody 
was hurt, and then, with an inimitable air, asked him if he 
didn't think it was **a mighty small crop for an acre of 
ground. ' ' The jury rejected the case with contempt, as beneath 
the dignity of twelve grave, good men and true. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM. 

J. II. Wickizer, a lawyer, gives the following as Lincoln's 
first proclamation of freedom. It was given one day when the 
two lawyers were riding in a buggy from Woodford County 
Court to Bloomington, 111. When passing through a grove, 
they suddenly heard the terrific squealing of a little pig near 
by, occasioned by an old hog that was about to eat up one of 
her young ones. Quick as thought Lincoln leaped out of the 
buggy, seized a club, bounced upon and beat the hog, and 
saved the pig, remarking as he jiimped back in the buggy: "By 
jingi The unnatural old brute shall not devour her own pro- 
geny I" 

THE SHIELDS-LINCOLN DUEL. 

The lat^e Gen. Shields was Auditor of the State of Illinois 
in 1830. While he occupied this important office he was in- 
volved in an "afi'air of honor" with a Springfield lawyer — no 
less a personage than Abraham Lincoln. At this time, James 

—45— 



Shields, Auditor, was the pride of the young Democracy, and 
was considered a dashing fellow by all, the ladies included. 
In the summer of 1842 the Springfield Journal contained some 
letters from the "Lost Township," by a contributor whose nom 
de plume was ''Aunt Becca," which held up the gallant young 
Auditor as "a ball-room dandy, floatin' about on the earth 
without heft or substance, just like a lot of cat-fur where the 
cats had been fightin'." 

These letters caused intense excitement in the town. No- 
body knew or guessed their authorship. Shields swore it 
would be coffee and pistols for two if he found out who had 
been lampooning him so unmercifully. Thereupon **Aunt 
Becca-' wrote another letter, which made the furnace of his 
wrc'.th seven times hotter than before, in which she made a very 
humble apology, and Differed to let him sqiieeze her hand for 
satisfaction, adding: 

' 'If this should not answer, there is one thing more I would 
rather do than get a lickin'. I have all along expected to die a 
widow; but as Mr. Shields is rather good looking than other- 
wise, I must say I don't care if we compromise the matter by 
— roally, Mr. Printer, I can't help blushin'~but I~must come 
out— I— but widowed modesty— well, if I must, I must,— 
wouldn't he — maybe sorter let the grudge drop if I was to 
consent to be— be— his wife? I know he is a fightin' man, and 
would rather fight than eat; but isn't marry in' better than 
fightin', though it does sometimes run into it? And I don't 
think upon the whole, I'd be sich a bad match, neither; I'm not 
over sixty, and am just four feet three in my bare feet, and 
not much more around the girth; and for color, I wouldn't 
turn my back on nary girl in the Lost Township. But, after 
all, maybe I'm countin' my chickens before they're hatched, 
and dreamin' of matrimonial bliss when the only alternative 
reserved for me may be a lickin'. Jeff tells me the way these 
fire-eaters do is to give the challenged party the choice of 

—46— 



weapons, which being the case, I tell you in confidence, never 
fight with anything but broomstick or hot water, or a shovel- 
ful of coals or some such thing; the former of which being 
somewhat like a shillalah, may not be so objectionable to him. 
I will give him a choice, however, in one thing, and that is 
whether, when we fight, I shall wear breeches or he petticoats, 
for I presume this change is sufficient to place us on an equality. 
Of course someone had to shoulder the responsibility of 
these letters after such a shot. The real author was none 
other than Miss Mary Todd, afterward the wife of Abraham 
Lincoln, to whom she was engaged, and who was in honor 
bound to assume, for belligerent purposes, the responsibility 
of her sharp pen-thrusts. Mr. Lincoln accepted the situation. 
Not long after the two men, with their seconds, were on their 
way to the field of honor. But the affair was fixed up without 
any fighting, and thus ended in a fizzle the Lincoln- Shields 
duel of the Lost Townships. 



THE AGE IS NOT DEAD. 

[Delivered in the Court House at Springfield, 111., in 1855, 
to only three persons. Mr. Herndon got a huge poster out, 
announcing the event, employed a band to drum up the crowd, 
and bells were rung, but only three persons were present. 
Mr. Lincoln was to have spoken on the slavery question.] 

Gentlemen : This meeting is larger than I knew it would 
be, as I knew Herndon (Lincoln's partner) and myself would 
be here, but I did not know anyone else would be here ; and 
yet another has come — you, John Pain (the janitor). 

These are bad times, and seem out of joint. All seems 
dead, dead, dead; but the age is not yet dead ; it liveth as sure 
as our Maker liveth. Under all this seeming want of life and 
motion, the world does move nevertheless. Be hopeful. And 
now let us adjourn and appeal to the people. 

_47— 



HIS NOISE DIDNT HURT ANYBODY. 

When General Phelps took possession of Ship Island, 
near New Orleans, early in the war, it will be remembered 
that he issued a proclamation, somewhat bombastic in tone, 
freeing: the slaves. To the surprise of many people, on both 
sides, the President took no official notice of this movement. 
Sometime had elapsed, when one day a friend took him to 
task for his seeming indifference on so important a matter. 

"Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "I feel about that a good deal 
as a man whom I will call 'Jones,' whom I once knew, did 
about his wife. He was one of your meek men, and had the 
reputation of being badly henpecked. At last, one day his 
wife was seen switching him out of the house. A day or two 
afterward a friend met him on the street, and said: 'Jones, I 
have always stood up for you, as you know; but I am not going 
to do it any longer. Any man who will stand quietly and take 
a switching from his wife, deserves to be horsewhipped.' Jones 
looked up with a wink, patting his friend on the back. 'Now, 
don't,' said he; 'why, it didn't hurt me any; and you've no 
idea what a power of good it did Sarah Ann.' " 



MR. LINCOLN TELLS A SECRET. 

When the Sherman expedition which captured Port Royal 
went out, there was a general curiosity to know where it had 
gone. A person visiting President Lincoln at his official resi- 
dence importuned him to disclose the destination. 

"Will you keep it entirely secret?" asked the President. 

"Oh, yes, upon my honor." 

"Well,!' said the President, "I'll tfell you." "Assuming an 
air of great mystery, and drawing the man close to him, hekept 
him a moment awaiting the revelation with an open mouth and 
in great anxiety, and then said in a loud whisper, which was 
heard all over the room, "The expedition has gone to— sea." 

—48— 



LINCOLN'S TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN WOMEN. 

[Extract from a Short Speech.] 

•'Ladies and Gentlemen : I appear to say but a word. 
This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily 
upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the sol- 
dier. For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give 
for his life ; and while cill contribute of their substance, the 
soldier puts his life at stake and often yields it up in his 
country's cause. The highest merit, then, is due to the 
soldier. 

In this extraordinary war extraordinary developments 
have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in 
former wars, and among these manifestations nothing has 
been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of suifer- 
ing soldiers and their families. And the chief agents of these 
fairs are the women of America." 



AN APPROPRIATE ILLUSTRATION. 

At the White House one day some gentlemen were present 
from the West, excited and troubled about the commissions 
or omissions of the Administration. The President heard 
them patiently, and then replied. ''Gentlemen, suppose all 
the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it 
in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on 
a rope, would you shake the cable, or keep shouting out to 
him, 'Blondin, stand up a little straighter— Blondin, stoop a 
little more— go a little faster— lean a little more to the north 
—lean a little more to the south?' No 1 you would hold your 
breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until 
he was safely over. The Government is carrying an immense 
^volght. Untold treasures are in its hands. It is doing the 
ry best it can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and it 
will get you safely across." 



HE PREFERRED GRANTS WHISKY. 

Just previous to the fall of Vicksburg, a self-constituted 
committee, solicitous for the morals of our armies, took it 
upon themselves to visit the President and urge the removal 
of Gen. Grant. 

In some surprise Mr. Lincoln inquired, "For what rea- 
son?" 

*'Why," replied the spokesman, *'he drinks too much 
whiskey." 

*'Ah 1" replied Mr. Lincoln, dropping his lower lip. "By 
the way, gentlemen, can either of you tell me where General 
Grant procures his whiskey ? Because, if I can find out, I will 
send everv General .in the field a barrel of it !" 



THE GLOVES KNOCKED HIM OUT. 

Mr. Lincoln's habits at the White House were as simple 
as they were at his old home in Illinois. He never alluded to 
himself as "President,'' or as occupying "the Presidency." 
His office he always designated as "this place." "Call me 
Lincoln," said he to a friend— "Mr. President" had become 
so very tiresome to him. "If you see a newsboy down the 
street send him up this way," said he to a passenger, as he 
stood waiting for the^morning news at his gate. Friends cau- 
tioned him against exposing himself so openly in the midst of 
enemies ; but he never heeded them. He frequently walked the 
streets at night entirely unprotected ; and he felt any check on 
his free movements as a great annoyance. He delighted to 
see his familiar Western friends, and he gave them always a 
cordial welcome. He met them on the old footing, and fell at 
once into the accustomed habits of talk and story-telling. 

An old acquaintance, with his wife, visited Washington. 
Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln proposed to these friends to ride in the 
Presidential carriage. It should be stated in advance that 

-50— 



the two men had probably never seen each other with gloves 
on in their lives, unless they were used as protection from the 
cold. 

The question of each — Mr. Lincoln at the White House 
and his friend at the hotel — was, whether he should wear 
gloves. Of course, the ladies urged gloves ; but Mr. Lincoln 
only put his in his pocket, to be used or not, * 'according to 
circumstances." 

When the Presidential party arrived at the hotel, to take 
in their friends, they found the gentleman, overcome by his 
wife's persuasions, very handsomely gloved. The moment he 
took his seat he began to draw off the clinging kids, while Mr. 
Lincoln began to draw his on. 

"No I no I no!" protested his friend, tugging at his gloves. 
''It is none of my doings; put up your gloves, Mr. Lincoln." 

So the two old friends were on even and easy terms, and 
had their ride after the old fashion. 



HE SWORE LIKE MR. SEWARD. 

Secretary Seward was an Episcopalian. On one of the 
occasions when President Lincoln's patience was tried by a 
self-appointed adviser who got warm and used strong lan- 
guage, Mr. Lincoln interrupted him by saying : **You are 
an Episcopalian, aren't youV" And when asked why he 
thought so, said : "You swear just like Mr. Seward, and he 
is." This was Mr. Lincoln's way of getting rid of such 
advisers. 

A PERVERTED PASSWORD. 

An amusing story is attributed to Presider^b Lincoln about 
the Iowa First, and the changes which a certain password 
underwent about the time of the battle of Springfield. 

One of the Dubuque officers, whose duty it was to furnish 
the guards with a password for the night, gave the word 



* Potomac." A German on guard, not comprehending dis- 
tinctl}^ the difference between B's and P's, understood it to be 
"Bottomic," and this, on being transferred to another, was 
corrupted into "Buttermilk." Soon afterward the officer who 
had given the word wished to return through the lines, and on 
approaching a sentinel was ordered to halt and the word de- 
manded. He gave the word "Potomac." 

"Nicht right; you don't pass mit me dis way." 

"But this is the word, and I will pass." 

"No, you Stan'," at the same time placing a bayonet at 
his breast, in a maaner that told the officer that "Potomac" 
didn't pass in Missouri. 

" What is the word, then ? " 

"Buttermilk." 

*'Dat is right; you pass mit yourself all about your 
piziness." 

There was then a general overhauling of the password, 
and, the difference between Potomac and Buttermilk being 
understood, the joke became one of the laughable incidents of 
the campaign. 



LETTER TO A WIDOW WHO HAD LOST FIVE SONS IN 

THE WAR. 

Executive Mansion. ) 
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864. " f 

Dear Madam : I have been shown in the files of the War 
Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massa- 
chusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died 
gloriously on the field of battle. I feel kow weak and fruit- 
less must be any words of mine, which should attempt to be- 
guile you from the grief of a loss «o overwhelming. But I 
cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may 
be found in the thanks of a republic they died to save. I pray 

—52— 



that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your 
bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the 
loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to 
have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
* 'Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 

^ A. Lincoln." 

TRIPLETS NAMED BY MR. LINCOLN. 

In South Starksboro, Addison County, Vt., according* to 
the Burlington Free Press, there are residing triplets, sons of 
Leonard Haskins, born May 24, 1864, and named by President 
Lincoln. They have in their possession a letter from the 
hand of the martyred President, and the names given were 
Abraham Lincoln, Gideon Welles and Simon Cameron. 
They are the children of American parents (who are still 
living ) of limited circumstances, and have led a very retired 
life ; are robust, intelligent and moral, and have always been 
abstainers from liquor and profanity. There is an almost 
perfect resemblance between two, who are light-complexioned, 
while the other is a striking contrast, having dark hair and 
eyes. 

LINCOLN'S VALUE OF A BRIGADIER. 

In the early part of the war a lady devoted to the cause of 
the confederate states and who resided just outside of the 
Union lines in Virginia, managed to fascinate Gen. Staugh- 
ton, a young West Point cavalry officer, and one evening, 
while he was enjoying her society, during a serenade by a 
regimental band, he, with his band and orderlies, was sur- 
prised and captured, and they were sent as prisoners of war 
to Richmond. "I do not mind losing the Brigadier," said 
Lincoln, in talking of the capture, "for they are easily made, 
but there were some twenty horses taken, and they cost one 
hundred and twenty-five dollars apiece." 

—53— 



HOW ALEXANDER H. STEVENS IMPRESSED MR. 
LINCOLN, 

In January, 1865, a committee of peace commissioners 
from the confederate states, of which Mr. Stevens was a mem- 
ber, arrived at City Point, Va., and requested General Grant 
to telegraph President Lincoln that they desired to meet him. 
A few days later Mr. Lincoln met them at Hampton Roads. 
At the time Mr. Stevens, who was a very small man, weighing 
less than one hundred pounds, was wearing a heavy woolen 
overcoat which reached nearly to his feet, giving him the ap- 
pearance of an average-sized man. He took off his overcoat, 
after meeting the President, who seemed struck with Mr. 
Stevens' apparent change of size, in the coat and out of it. 
On meeting General Grant, Lincoln asked him if he h:A seen 
that overcoat of Stevens. Grant replied that he had. **Well," 
said the President, "did you see him take it off?" Grant 
replied that he did. "Well," said he, "didn't you think it was 
the biggest shuck and the littlest ear that you ever did see?" 



HIS TITLE AT A DISCOUNT. 

Concerning a drollery of President Lincoln, this story is 
told: 

During the Rebellion an Austrian Count applied to Presi- 
dent Lincoln for a position in the army. Being introduced 
by the Austrian minister, he needed, of course, no further, 
recommendation ; but, as if fearing that his importance might 
not be appreciated, he proceeded to explain that he was a 
Count; that his family were ancient and highly respectable; 
when Lincoln, with a merry twinkle in his eye, tapping the 
aristocratic lover of titles on the shoulder, in a fatherly way, 
as if the man,, had confessed to some wrong, interrupted in a 
soothing tone, "Never mind : you shall be treated with just as 
much consideration for all that." 

--64— 



NO SPECIAL TRAIN FOR HIM. 

One of the last stories heard from Mr. Lincoln was con- 
cerning John Tyler, for whom it was to be expected, as an old 
Henry Clay Whig, he would entertain no great respect. "A 
year or two after Tyler's accession to the Presidency," said 
he, * 'contemplating an excursion in some direction, his son 
went to order a special train of cars. It so happened that the 
railroad superintendent was a strong Whig. On Bob's making 
known his errand, that official bluntly informed him that his 
road did not run any special trains for the President. 

" 'What!' said Bob, *did you not furnish a special train 
for the funeral of General Harrison?' 

" 'Yes,' said the superintendent, stroking his whiskers, 
*and if you will only bring your father here in that shape, 
you shall have the best train on the road.' " 



MR. LINCOLN'S APT REPLY. 

Lincoln's opponent for the Legislature in 1836 was the 
Hon. Geo. Forquer, of Springfield, 111., who was celebrated 
for having introduced the first and only lightning rod in 
Springfield at this time. He said in a speech, in Lincoln's 
presence: "This young man (Lincoln) would have to be taken 
down, and I am sorry the task devolves upon me;" and then 
proceeded to try and "take him down." Mr. Lincoln made a 
reply, and in closing, turned to the crowd and made these 
remarks : 

"Fellow Citizeks : It is for you, not for me, to say 
whether I am up or down. The gentleman has alluded to my' 
being a young man; I am older in years than. I am in the 
tricks and trades of politicians. 1 desire to live, and desire 
place and distinction ay a politician; but I would rather die 
now than, like the gentleman, live to see the day that I would 
have to erect a lightning rod to protect a guilty conscience 
from an offended God." 

->-55— 



STANTON ADVISED TO PREPARE FOR DEATH. 

The imperious Stanton, when Secretary of War, took a 
fancy one day to a house in Washington that Lamon had 
bargained for. He ordered the latter to vacate instanter. 
Lamon not only did not vacate, but went to Stanton and said 
he would kill him if he interfered with the house. Stanton 
was furious at the threat, and made it known at once to' Lin- 
coln. The latter said to the astonished War Secretary : 

"Well, Stanton, if Lamon has said he will kill you, he 
certainly will, and I'd advise you to prepare for death without 
further delay. ' ' 

The President promised, however, to do what he could to 
appease the murderous Marshal, and this was the end of 
Stanton's attempt on the house. 



MR. LINCOLN'S DEDICATION SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. 

[ Delivered at the dedication of tlie Gettysburg National Cemetery^ 
on the Gettysburg battle-iield, Nov. 19, l§fj3. J 

"Ladies and gentlemen:— Four score and seven 
years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent 
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the 
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are 
engaged in a civil war, testing whether that nation, or 
any nation so conceived arid so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. 
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final 
resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that 
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and,proper that 
we should do this. 

"But in a larger sense we can not dedicate, we can 
not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave 
men, living and dead, who smuggled here, have conse- 
crated it far above our power to add or detract. The 
™56- 



world will little note, nor long remember, what we say 
here. 

"It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here. 
to the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining before, that from 
those honored dead we take increased devotion .to the 
cause for which they gave the last full measure of de- 
votion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall 
not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall 
have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people^ shall not 
perish from the earth." " ' 



MORE LIGHT AND LESS NOISE. 

An editorial, in a New York journal, opposing Lincum ^ 
renomination, is said to have called out from him the follow- 
ing story : "A traveler on the frontier found himself out of 
his reckoning one night in a most inhospitable region. 4X 
terrific thunder-storm came up to add to his troubles. . He 
floundered along until at length his horse gave out. The- 
lightning afforded him the only clue to his way, but the peaU 
of thunder were frightful. One bolt, which seemed to crash 
the earth beneath him, brought him to his knees. By no 
means a praying man, his petition was short and to the point 
— 'O, Lord, if it is all the same to you, give u& a little more 
light and a little less noise. I' " 



DRANK NOTHING BUT ADAM'S ALE 

Immediately after Mr. Lincoln's nomination for President 
at the Chicago Convention, a committee, of which Governor 
Morton, of New York, was chairman, visited him in Spring- 
field, 111., whfiie he was oflflcially informed of his nomination. 

—57— 



After this ceremony had passed, Mr. Lincoln remarked to 
the company, that as an appropriate conclusion to an inter- 
view so important and interesting as that which has just 
transpired, he supposed good manners would require that he 
should treat the company with something to drink; and open- 
ing a door that led into a room in the rear, he called out, 
'Mary I Mary I" A girl responded to the call, to whom Mr. 
Lincoln spoke a few words in an undertone, and, closing the 
door, returned to converse with his guests. In a few minutes 
the maiden entered, bearing a large waiter, containing several 
glass tumblers, and a large pitcher in the midst, and placed 
it upon the center-table. Mr. Lincoln arose and. gravely 
addressing the company, said: "Gentlemen, we must pledge 
our mutual healths in the most healthy beverage which God 
has given to man— it is the only beverage I have ever used or 
allowed in my family, and I can not conscientiously depart 
from it on thig present occasion — it is pure Adam's ale from 
the spring;" and, taking a tumbler, he touched it to his lips, 
and pledged them his highest respects in a cup of cold water. 
Of course all his guests were constrained to admire his con- 
sistency, and to join in his example. 



LINCOLN ON TEMPERANCE. 

In response tc an address from the Sons of Temperance 
in Washington^ on the 29th of September, 1863, Mr. Lincoln 
made the following remarks ': 

*'As a matter of course j it will not be possible for 
me to make a response co-extensive with the address 
which you have presented to me. If I were better known 
than I am, you would not need to be told that, in advo- 
cacy of the cause of temperance, you have a friend and 
sympathizer in me. When a young man— long ago— 
before the Sons of Temperance as an organization had 



an existence, I, in an humble way, made temperance 
speeches, and I think I may say that to this day I have 
never, by my example, belied what I then said. 

•'In regard to the suggestions which you make for 
the purpose af advancement of the cause of temperance 
in the army, I cannot make particular response to them 
at this time. To prevent intemperance in the army is 
even a part of the articles of war. It is a part of the law 
of the land, and was so, I presume, long ago to dismiss 
officers for drunkenness. I am not sure that, consistent 
with public service, more can be done than has been 
done. All, therefore, that I can promise is (if you will 
be pleased to furnish me with a copy of your address) to 
have it submitted to the proper department, and have it 
considered, whether it contains any suggestions which 
will improve the cause of temperance in the army any 
better than it is already_done. I can promise no more 
than that. 

"I think the reasonable men of the world have long 
since agreed that intemperance is one of the greatest, if 
not the very greatest, of all evils among mankind. That 
is not a matter of dispute. I believe. That the dis,ease 
exists, and that it is a very great one, is agreed upon 
by all. The mode of cure is one about which there 
may be differences of opinion. You have suggested that 
in an army — our army — drunkenness is a great evil, and 
one which, while it exists to a very great extent, we 
cannot expect to overcome so entirely as to leave such 
success in our arms as we might have without it. 
This, undoubtedly, is true, and while it is, perhaps, 
a bad source to derive comfort from, nevertheless, in a 
hard struggle I do not know but what it is some <}onso- 
latipn to, be aware that there is some intemperance on 
the other* side, too, and that they have no right to beat 
—59— 



us in physical combat on that ground. Bat I have al- 
ready said more than I expected to be able to say when 
I began, and if you please to hand me a copy of your 
address, it shall be considered. I thank you very hear- 
tily, gentlemen, for t^is call, and for bringing with you 
these very many pretty ladies." 



WOULD NOT COME A SECOND TIME. 

Among the visitors on one of the President's reception 
days was the Hon. Thomas Shannon, of California. S':)on 
after the customary greeting, Mr. Shannon said : 

"Mr. President, I met an old friend of yours in California 
last summer, Thomas Campbell, who had a great deal to say 
about jour Springfield life. ' ' , 

"Ah!" returned Mr. Lincoln, "I am glad to hear of him. 
Campbell used to be a dry fellow," he continued. For a time 
he was Secretary of State. One day during the legislative 
vacation a meek, cadavarous-looking man, with a white neck- 
cloth, introduced himself to him a.t his office, and, stating that 
he had been informed that Mr. C. had the letting of the As- 
sembly Chamber, said that he wished to secure it, if possible, 
for a course of lectures he desired to deliver in Springfield. 

"May I ask," said the Secretary, "what is to be the sub- 
ject of your lectures?" 

"Certainly," was the reply, with a very solemn expression 
of countenance. "The course I wish to deliver is on the 
Second Coming of our Lord." 

"It is of no use," said C. "If you will take my advice, 
you will not waste your time in this city. It is my private 
opinion that if the Lord has been in Springfield once, He will 
not come a second time. 

—60— 



LINCOLN'S LITERARY EXPERIMENTS. 

In the April (1894) number of the Centwi/ John G. Nicolay 
writes of "Lincoln's Literary Experiments," and quotes a 
poem written by the President in his early manhood. In a 
letter enclosing the poem to a friend, Lincoln explains that 
the verses were written in 1844, when he visited the neighbor- 
hood in which he was raised, on a stumping tour. Here are 
the opening stanzas : 

"My cbildhood''8 home I see aj^ain, 

And sudden with the view ; 
And etill, as memory crowds my brain, 

There's pleasure in it, too. 

"O Memory! thou midway world 

Twixt earth and paradise, 
Where things decayed and loved ones lost 

In dreamy shadows rise." 

"And, freed from all that ''a earthly, vile, 

Seem hallowed, pure and bright, 
Like scenes in some enchanted isle, 

All bathed In liquid light." 



"He loved the thrush—'twas such a gentle bird, 

That sang in strains of cheerful melody; 
Bat since he died its note has not been h«ard. 

It droops beneath the weeping willow tree I 
Clear as the rill of fountains ere the frost 

Of winter lava a seal upon their lips; 

Nor broken by the prow of sturdy ships; 
Now plaintive as when maids at prayer entreat 

For absolution— the bird gushed forth a etream 
Of soul-lit music, till one quick heart beat 

(Roused by the dying eagle's anguished scream) 
Shriveled all to diamond notes, which heaven displayed. 

To show his death had even the gods dismayed !'■ 

—Jioliin, Cutter, 

Referring to the beautiful legend prevalent among the far- 
mers of the west, that the brown thrush was silent for one year 
after Lincoln's death, and that a brilliant meteor shower illu- 
minated the heavens on the morning of his passing away, 

—61— 



SIMPLY PRESIDENT. 

[From the Fort Wayne Gazette, Feb. 15, 1898, referring to the cele- 
bration at Lebanon, Ind. 

Mr. "William Bender Wilson, of Lancaster, Pa., who 
entered the War Department as a military telegrapher in 1861, 
gives the following fresh anecdote : 

In the fall of 1861 fires in Washington City were of 
frequent occurrence, without any organized adequate means 
for extinguishing them being in existence there. This con- 
dition of affairs was a source of so much anxiety to the 
country at large that no sooner wS,s a Washington fire an- 
nounced in the newspapers than the mails would teem with 
patriotic offers to the President from all sections for the 
formation of fire brigades as a component part of the army 
for the protection of the Capitol. This was one of the great 
annoyances of irrelevant subjects thrust upon the President. 
He bore it all as a part of the responsibilities resting upon 
him, yet at last was compelled to rebuke it from sheer lack of 
time to give it any attention. 

One night the Washington infirmary burned down, and, as 
was customary after such disasters, the next day brought the 
President the usual complement of offers of fire engines and 
firemen. Philadelphia's patriotism, true to its traditions, 
could not await the slow progress of the mail, but sent for- 
ward a committee of citizens to urge upon the President the 
acceptance of a fully equipped fire brigade for Washington. 
On their arrival at the White House they were most courte- 
ously and blandly received by Mr. Lincoln. Eloquently, did 
they urge their mission, but valuable time was being wasted, 
and Mr. Lincoln was forced to bring the conference to a close, 
which he did by interrupting the committee in the midst of a 
grand and to be clinching oratorical effort by gravely saying, 

-62- 



as if he had just awakened to the true import of the visit: 
"Ah, yes, g-entlemen, but it is a mistake to suppose that I am 
at the head of the fire department of the City of Washington ! 
I am simply President of the United States ! " 



TAD LINCOLN. 



Thomas Lincoln, or Tad, as he was familiarly called, was 
given a soldierly bent by the military displays. Dressed in 
full uniform and thoroughly equipped, although but 12 years 
of age at the time, he afterward appeared in the camx3s of the 
army, and, mounted upon a Shetland pony, rode beside his 
father when reviewing the troops as commander-in-chief. 
\ ~ E. A. Spring, 

Formerly Seventh N. Y. Militia Vols. 



WHAT LINCOLN SAID. 

[Surprismg incident related by General Lew Wallace. Why Lincoln was 
greatly worried,] 

One of the most interesting speeches delivered at the 
Lincoln banquet here, in which 500 people, including most of 
the State officials, participated, was that of General Lew 
Wallace. The address for the most part dealt with personal 
reminiscences of the great emancipator. In concluding his 
remarks the speaker said : 

"I will tell you at this time of an incident which I have 
never before made public. I do not know that it is proper, 
but the man whom it is about is dead, and I will relate it. I 
had made an engagement with Lincoln to call at the White 
House and present two ladies who desired to meet him. The 
time set for the call was at II a. m. At the appointed hour I 
presented myself in company with the ladies. As I was 
ushered in I saw, at the farther end of the room, the tall form 
of Lincoln leaning against a window. He waved his hand, 

—63— 



indicating that I was to take the ladies to a sofa and then by 
another wave of the hand he motioned for me to come to him. 
My heart filled with sympathy for him, for I knew something 
was wrong. 

As I approached him and looked into his face it seemed to 
me it was the saddest and most troubled countenance I had 
ever beheld. There were deep lines of suffering about the 
face, the features were drawn and pinched. His hair, which 
had grown thin, was uncombed. He was naturally somewhat 
stoop-shouldered, but seemed to be especially so on this 
occasion. As I drew nearer and caught his eye I was more 
deeply impressed with the sadness which permeated his whole 
being. If I were to live a thousand years I would not forget 
the anguish of the expression of his face. 

*'I said . *Mr. Lincoln, I hope you are not sick?' 

"He replied: 'No, I am not sick. 

'' 'But,* said I. 'You look sad. Something terrible must 
have happened.' 

"He made no reply, but calling a servant, he inquired 
how long it would be until the boat left the wharf for 
Harrison's Landing. The answer was, 'In half an hour.' 
Then turning to me, Lincoln said, and the sadness of his face 
deepened as he said it, 'I must go on that boat to Harrison's 
Landing on the James River, ' 

" 'What for, Mr. Lincoln? ' I asked in surprise. 

"His voice dropped to a whisper as he replied: 'I must 
go there to keep McClellan from surrendering the army.' 

"It was after the seven days' battle, and the leader of the 
great army was retreating before the confederates. 

"At this point I introduced the ladies and retired. In 
thirty minutes Lincoln was on board the boat speeding away 
on his mission. The next I heard of Lincoln he was at 
Harrison's Landing, and the Union army was not sur- 
rendered." 

.—64— 



home to rest, throwing myself upon a lounge in my chamber. 
Opposite to where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass 
upon it ; and, in looking in that glass, I saw myself reflected 
nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed, had two separate 
and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being three 
inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, per- 
haps startled, and got up and looked in the glass; but the illu- 
sion vanished. On lying down again I saw it a second time, 
plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one 
of the faces was a little paler — say five shades— than the other. 
I got up and the thing melted away; and I went off, and in the 
excitement of the hour forgot all about it, — nearly, but tiot 
quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give 
me a little pang, as though something uncomfortable had hap- 
pened. When I went home, I told iny wife about it, and a few 
days after I tried the experiment again, when, sure enough, the 
thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the 
ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously 
to show it to my wife, who was worried about it somewhat. 
She thought it was 'a sign' that I was to be elected to a second 
term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an 
omen that I should not see life through the second term." 

From this time forth anonymous threats and friendly 
warnings came thick and fast up to the fatal day when the real 
event befell. Some of these he kept, labeled "Assassination 
Letters." Before he left Springfield for his journey to Wash- 
ington, many ingenious fears were suggested to him; but, ex- 
cept for his change of route toward the close of his journey, 
none of these presagings visibly influenced him, and his 
change of purpose concerning the passage through Baltimore 
was never afterward recalled by him without vexation. From 
this time forth he resolutely ignored all danger of this kind. 
Dui'ing most of the time that he was in office any one could 
easily call upon him, unguarded, at the Wliite House; he 

— «7-^ 



moved through the streets of Washington like any private 
citizen; and he drove about the environs, and habitually in 
the warm season took the long drive to and from the Soldiers' 
Home, with substantially no protection. When, at last, a 
guard at the White House and an escort upon his drives were 
fairly forced upon him by Mr. Stanton (who was declared by 
the gossip of the unfriendly to be somewhat troubled with phy- 
sical timidity), he rebelled against these incumbrances upon 
his freedom, and submitted, when he had to do so, with an ill 
grace. To those who remonstrated with him upon his careless- 
ness he made various replies. Sometimes, half jocosely, he said 
that it was hardly likely that any intelligent Southerner would 
care to get rid of him in order to set either Vice-President 
Hamlin or, later, Vice-President Johnson, in his place. At 
other times he said: "What is the use of setting up the gap, 
when the fence is down all round?" or, "I do not see that I 
can make myself secure except by shutting myself up in an 
iron box, and in that condition I think I could hardly satis- 
factorily transact the business of the presidency." Again he 
said: **If I am killed, I can die but once; but to live in con- 
stant dread of it, is to die over and over again." This was 
an obvious reflection, easy enough of suggestion for any one 
who was not within the danger line; but to live every day in 
accordance with it, when the danger was never absent, called 
for a singular tranquility of temperament, and a kind of cour- 
age in which brave men are notoriously apt to be deficient. 

On April 9th the President was coming up the Potomac in 
a steamer from City Point; the Comte de Chambrun was of 
the party and relates that, as they were nearing Washington, 
Mrs. Lincoln, who had been silently gazing toward the town, 
said: "That city is filled with our enemies;" Thereupon Mr. 
Lincoln somewhat impatiently retorted: "Enemies I we must 
never speak of thati" For he was resolutely cherishing the 
impossible idea that Northerners and Southerners were to be 



enemies no longer, but that a pacifcation of the spirit was 
coming tliroughout the warring land contemporaneously with 
the cessation of hostilities, a dream romantic and hopelessly 
incapable of realization, but humane and beautiful. Since he 
did not live to endeavor to transform it into a fact, and 
thereby, perhaps, to have his efforts cause even seriously inju- 
rious results, it is open to us to forget the impracticability of 
the fancy and to revere the nature which in such an hour could 
give birth to such a purpose. '*«. 

The fourteenth day of April was Friday — Good Friday. 
Many religious persons afterward ventured to say that if the 
President had not been at the theatre upon that sacred day, 
the awful tragedy might never have occurred at all. Others, 
however, not less religiously disposed, were impressed by the 
coincidence that the fatal shot was ^red upon that day which the 
Christian world had agreed to adopt as the anniversary of the 
crucifixion of the Saviour of mankind. General Grant and 
his wife were in Washington on that day and the President 
invited them to go with him to see the play at Ford's Theatre 
in the evening, but personal engagements called them north- 
ward. In the afternoon the President drove out with his wife 
and again the superstitious element comes in; for he appeared 
in such good spirits as he chatted cheerfully of the past and 
future, that she uneasily remarked to him: ' 'I have seen you 
thus only once before; it was just before our dear Willie 
died." Such a frame of mind, however, under the circum- 
stances at that time must be regarded as entirely natural 
rather than as ominous. 

About nine o'clock in the evening the President entered 
his box at the theatre; with him were his wife, Major Rathbone 
and a lady; the box had been decorated with an American 
flag, of which the folds swept down to the stage. Unfortu- 
nately it had also been tampered with, in preparation for the 
plans of the conspirators. Between it and the corridor was a 

—69— 



small vestibule; and a stout stick of wood had been so ar- 
ranged that it could in an instant be made to fasten securely, 
on the inside, the door which opened from the corridor into 
this vestibule. Also in the door which led from the vestibule 
into the box itself a hole had been cut, through which the 
situation of the different persons in the box could be clearly 
seen. Soon after the party had entered, when the cheering had 
subsided and the play was going forward, just after ten o'clock, 
a man approached through the corridor, pushed his visit- 
ing card into the hands of the attendant who sat there, hast- 
ily entered the vestibule and closed and fastened the door 
behind him. A moment later the noise of a pistol shot as- 
tounded every one, and instantly a man was seen at the front 
of the President's box; Major Rathbone sprang to grapple 
with him, but was severely slashed in the arm and failed to 
retard his progress; he vaulted over the rail to the stage, but 
caught his spur in the folds of the flag, so that he did not 
alight fairly upon his feet; but he ii^stantiy recovered himself, 
and with a visible limp in his gait hastened across the stage; 
as he went, he turned toward the audience, brandished the 
bloody dagger with which he had just struck Rathbone, and 
cried *^Sic semper tyrannisP^ Some recognized John Wilkes 
Booth, an actor of melo-dramatic characters. The door at 
the back of the theatre was held open for him by Edward 
Spangler, an employe, and in the alley hard by a boy, also 
employed about the theatre, was holding the assassin's horse, 
saddled and bridled. Booth kicked the boy aside, with a 
curse, climbed into the saddle with difficulty, — for the small 
bone of his leg between the knee and ankle had been broken in 
his fall upon the stage, — and rode rapidly away into the night. 
Amid the confusion, no efficient pursuit was made. 



—70- 



PART II. 



FACTS ABOUT 

THE LINCOLN MEDICINES. 



VfwE BEG to call the attention of the public to 
the complete line of the -Lincoln Medicines. 
The proprietors have spared no expense to make 
these remedies the best of their kind on the market. 
All of the ingredients contained in the Lincoln 
Medicines are the purest and of the finest quality 
to be had. 

The Lincoln Proprietary Company have ob- 
served the advantage of giving to the public even 
at a great expense, pure medicines which possess 
merit, at small profit, rather than a cheap medicine 
with absolutely no merit and big profits. The 
enormous sale of these medicines and the numer- 
ous testimonials for their merit have amply paid 
the proprietors for giving the public honest goods. 
We trust whoever picks up this book will read 
the same, and if you have any ailment for which 
the Lincoln Medicines are adapted, you will give 
them a trial and see the good results of an honest 
remedy. 

LINCOLN PROPRIETARY CO, 

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA. 



JINCOLN TEA 

Is a wonderful medicine. It is a remedy that makes people 
well. First prescribed by the greatest physician this country 
has ever known, it was at once recognized as a boon to 
humanity, and has been prescribed and recommended by 
phy&icians of every class everywhere. 

There are a greater number of imitations of Lincoln Tea, 
which possess not one particle of merit, but the original and 
Famous Tea is Lincoln. 

The herbs used in the manufacture of Lincoln Tea are col- 
lected from different portions of the globe. Some are imported 
from the land of the Pyramid and Mummy; some grow under 
the sunny skies of Italy; some are gathered on the shores 
washed by the Baltic Sea. All contribute some specific qual- 
ity for which they are noted, and when combined and com- 
pounded together form a medicine which stays the ravages of 
disease, restores the weakened system to its normal condition 
and HEALTH, the AIM, is reached. 

Every family should keep constantly on hand some simple, 
effective remedy, reliably known to produce healthy conditions 
to the human system. 

Thinking people everywhere agree that simplicity is the 
great desideratum. What then, is the test by which the en- 
quirer may exactly know what fills the above requirements? 
We answer: LOOK UP THE RECORD OF LINCOLN TEA. 
Here you will find a medicine which removes causes, and con- 
sequently cures disease. Compare, too, its gentle yet thorough 
working with the former prevalent methods resulting in violent 
purging and gr'ping, which left the system in such an exhaust- 
ed condition that freq^ient relapses were the result. Lincoln 
Tea is GUARANTEED NOT TO GRIPE. 

CERTAIN OUBE EOB SIOK HBADAOHE. 

-73- 



[POSITIVE CURE FOK CONSTIPATION. 

Are you not willing to accord a fair trial to a remedy 
whose virtues have built up senile age to a semblance of 
youth, have aided those in middle life to turn the treacherous 
point which makes or mars their future, have enabled blushing 
and beautiful youth to build up healthy constitutions, the true 
foundation of happiness and prosperity. 



THOUSANDS OF MEN AND WOMEN, 

With that "run-down" feeling written^ all over their faces, 
unable to work, without courage, have recovered health, heart 
and ambition through this remarkable remedy for the blood. 
It purifies the blood. It enridhes the blood. It generally stirs 
liver and kidneys and other organs destined to keep sweet 
and clean the vital machinery. 

Within a very few days after LINCOLN TEA is taken 
regularly there will be a marked improvement in the general 
health; strength will become more enduring, the body plumper, 
the spirits better and the breath sweeter — all declaring in the 
plainest terms a healthier action of the blood. 

WOMEN TROUBLED with pain at the time of the usual 
"monthly sickness," and those just entering motherhood, will 
find relief on taking a single dose. If you have Jaundice, or 
suffer from irregular conditions of the bowels resulting from 
constipation, try LINCOLN TEA. It will cure you. 



CHANGE OF LIFE. 

This is a very "critical period" in the life of women, and 
generally occurs between the age of forty and forty-five years. 
This stoppage of the menses often produces heart trouble, ner- 
vousness, insanity, general debility and serious disorders of 

—74— 



IINCOUN TEA 

Positirely removes all dangers arising from the changes 
of life: 

Mrs. J. H. Carso, of Streator, Ills., writes as follows: 
Lincoln Proprietary Comjxiny, Fort Wayne , Intl.: 

Gentlemen: I feel that it is my duty to tell youthewou- 
derfiU benefit your LINCOLN TEA has done me. I had been 
sick for many months, unable to do anything about the house, 
had grown very thin and was getting thinner. The cause of 
ray sickness was brought about by a misfortune during the 
period known as "change of life." My doctor had given me 
up, and, in fact, I had given up all hope of recovery myself. 
One day a man left a sample of your blessed medicine at our 
home. My daughter made the sample up for me according to 
directions, I drank the cupful, and was astonished at the 
resulti I slept better that night than I had for mouths. I pur- 
chased some of the Tea of the druggist. I have now taken &ix 
boxes and feel like a young woman; have gained twenty-three 
pounds in flesh and am happy. I wish, I could let every 
woman in the world know what a wonderful medicine LIN- 
COLN TEA is. Wishing you all the success in the world, I 
am your friend. Mrs. J. H. Carso. 

FOR THE COMPLEXION.! 

LINCOLN TEA is incomparable in its effects. Where is 
there a woman, be she duchess or dairy maid, that does not 
court a fair skin ? Even the lords of creation sometimes find 
themselves in a blotchy, pimpled condition, offensive to the eye. 

Now we place before you, the human family, male and 
female, young and old, a means by which this adjunct of 
beauty can be readily attained. 

CERTAIN OURE FOR SICK HEADACHE. 



WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF BAB SKIN ? 

Sluggish circulation and bad digestion. Remove the 
cause of the above condition, and marked improvement will 
be discovered, often within one week. 

Health alone paints upon the cheek the charming rose- 
tinted symbol desired by nature herself, and which is never 
successfully imitated by cosmetics. 



LINCOLN TEA FOR STOMACH, BOWELS AND LIVER. 

Regularity can never be successfully established by the 
use of drastic medicines — for the reason that the vitality is 
always lowered by its use below recuperation point. Nature 
teaches us to husband our energies, not to tear down before 
we build up. Vegetable Remedies are confessedly mild in 
their effects upon the human system, and among these LIN- 
COLN TEA stands paramount. Deceit is impossible, for each 
one sees for himself. No man, woman or child need misun- 
derstand conditions or their care. 

LINCOLN TEA is one of the grandest and most perfect 
Blood Purifiers in the World. 



DYSPEPSIA AND STOMACH TROUBLE. 

Symptoms. — Bad taste in the mouth, furred tongue, offen- 
sive breath, belching of wind, distress before or after eating, 
fainting, dizziness, palpitation of the h^art, headache, heart- 
burn, blurred vision, colic, imperfect circulation, the mind 
becomes affected, low spirits, fretfulness and irritability fol- 
low and insanity often results. 

LINCOLN TEA cures all forms of stomach trouble and 
indigestion. It invigorates, soothes and heals stomachs where 
the lining has been impaired by physics and strong drugs. 

OEBTAIN OUBE FOB SIOE HEADACHE. 

-76— 



POR THE UVER. 

Over half of the suicides in this country can be traced to a 
disordered liver. In fact, there is no other disease that has 
such a depressing effiect on the patient as disease of the liver. 
Thousands of people are to-day doctoring" for some imaginary 
ailment, who, if their liver were working in a healthy manner, 
would be in perfect health. The liver acts as a purifier of the 
blood, and above all other members of the body, should be 
attended to carefully. 

SYMPTOMS. — Yellowish, hue of the eyes and cheeks, a 
frequent rising of a bitter substance, leaving a bad taste in the 
mcuth, a dull, heavy headache, coated tongue, highly colored 
urine, wind on the stomach, pain and soreness under the right 
side under the lower ribs, sick headache, dull spirits and rest- 
less nights. 

LINCOLN TEA is a guaranteed cure for all diseases of 
the liver. It acts immediately and leaves none of the bad 
effects that result from calomel and other poisonous drugs. 



FEMALE DISORDER. 

Women suffer from many symptoms of the most distress- 
ing characters as a result of the womb and ovaries. 

SYMPTOMS. — Dragging down pains in small of back, 
scant flow with clots, or excessive flow, irregular menstrua- 
tion, leucorrhoea or whites, tired and all-gone feeling, feeling 
more tired in the morning than when retiring, headache, 
pain in top of head, sensation as of a ball rising in the throat 
that causes a sensation of choking, scant or frequent desire to 
pass water that sometimes causes scalding. 

LINCOLN TEA is generally adapted for the speedy and 
permanent cure of all diseases peculiar to women. It not only 

CERTAIN OXTBE FOB SIOX HEADACHE. 

-77- 



POSITIVE CTTKE FOR CONStIS»A*ION. 

quiets and soothes the deranged parts, but tones and builds 
up the entire system and by this means improves the general 
health and restores the generative organs to a normal and 
healthy condition. 

In suppressed menstruation the LINCOLN TANSY PILLS 
are recommended. 

RHEUMATISM. 

In the majority of cases rheumatism is due to derangement 
of the kidneys, impoverished condition of the blood, or sud- 
den cold. 

SYMPTOMS. — Pain, soreness, stiffness and lameness in 
the neck, shoulders, back, loins, limbs, or feet. 

ACUTE CASES are accompanied with high fever, redness 
and swelling of parts affected, scanty secretions. 

CHRONIC CASES are designated by lameness, stiffness, 
pain, aching and distortion of the limbs. 

LUMBAGO.— Pain with sudden catch in the small of the 
back, worse on rising from bed or chair; or constant dull 
gains in the back or loins. 

SCIATICA, — Severe shooting, drawing pains or continu- 
ous dull, heavy aching in the hip, thigh, leg or foot, some- 
times accompanied with numbness. 

LINCOLN TEA will cure Rheumatism in any part of the 
body. Acute or Muscular Rheumatism cured in from one to 
five days; Chronic Rheumatism, Sciatica, Lumbago, are re- 
lieved in a short time and permanently cured in a few days. 

For external application the LINCOLN PAIN CURE is a 
sure relief for severe pains. 

We wish to caution the public and our friends against 
imitations of LINCOLN TEA and against vile compounds. 

CERTAIN CURE FOR SICK HEADACHE. 

— 7&-- 



POSITIVE CURE FOR CONSTIPATION. 

Why pay a dollar for a bottle of nasty mixture which will do 
you no good, when you can procure for 25 cents, a package of 
LINCOLN TEA made of pure, fresh herbs, full of merit and 
guaranteed to cure? Give in a trial. 



LINCOLN TEA MAKES WILL SHARP, OF ABINGTON, 
ILLS., HAPPY AND FAT,— LISTEN. 

Gentlemen : — I think it my duty to bear testimony to the 
excellence of your LINCOLN TEA. Some time ago I got hold 
of u sample package, and from that time to this i have not been 
without it. Since I first commenced using it I have gained 
eighteen pounds in weight. It is a most excellent remedy for a 
diseased stomach. I wish you could get every person suffer- 
ing with this ailment to use LINCOLN TEA. 

Sincerely, WILL SHARP. 

Chester Farrell, a noted physician, writes under date of 
April 8, 1894: 
Lincoln Proprietary Company: 

Dear Sirs: — We have used your Tea and found its med- 
ical properties for diseases of the kidneys and liver unequalled. 
Yours, etc., CHESTER FARRELL. . 



CURED AFTER YEARS OF SUFFERING. 

Oliver Holmes, of Bloomington, writes: 

Gentlemen :~I am a book-keeper and have suffered for 

years with habitual constipation, and the natural consequences 

of such condition, dizzy headache, foul breath, etc. I had used 

pills by the hundreds and other medicine, all of which afforded 

me no rcliclf . I got a sample of your LINCOLN TEA one day 

CERTAIN CTTRE FOR SICK HEADACHE. 

—79— 



POSITIVE CURB FOR CONSTIPATION. 

and derived much benefit from the first dose. I have been 
using it ever since and am entirely cured. My system is regu- 
lar and my general health much improved. 

OLIVER HOLMES. 



A BOON TO WOMANKIND. 



Aunt Lydia's Anastriiis:ent — Vegfetable Pastiles. 



THE MOST REMARKABLE TREATMENT FOR DISEASES 
OF WOMEN EVER DISCOVERED. 



A Positive Cure for Congestion, 
Granulation, 
Inflammation 
Leucorrhoea, {Whites) 
Prolapsus, 
All Displacements, 
Diseases of the Ovaries, 
And Menstruation. 
The results from the use of Aunt Lydia's Anastringent 
(Vegetable Pastiles) are astonishing. The medicine proves 
more effectual than any treatment in the world. It is in ad- 
vance of any medicine ever offered to suffering women for 
diseases peculiar to their sex. 

To satisfy any woman suffering from female weakness of 
the wonderful merits of Anastringent, and enable them to give 
the remedy a trial, FREE samples will be sent to any lady 
sending her name and address to 

LINCOLN PROPRIETARY CO., 

FORT Wayne, Indiana. 



SPRING MEDICINES, 

In the spring everybody needs, and should take a spring 
medicine. Not only is this a common practice, but a very 
necessary and healthful one. It is a fact which physicians 
acknowledge and the people recognize generally, that a spring 
tonic, taken during the months of March, April and May, is 
more conducive to the restoration of health, in cases of those 
who are sick, than any other course of treatment that can 
possibly be adopted. 

It is further understood by everybody that even for those 
who call themselves well, it is very important at this season 
of the year, if they would maintain good health and vigor, to 
take a spring remedy to strengthen and invigorate the nerves, 
tone up the action of all the organs, and thus, by creating a 
healthy condition of the nerves, blood, liver, kidneys and 
bowels, assist nature in the efforts she always makes in the 
spring to cleanse, purify and invigorate the system. 

In the spring there are a great many and important 
changes going on in the body. Perfect health can not be 
maintained while the system is clogged and the organs slug- 
g-ish, and the person has a languid and weakened feeling, with 
ujore or less nervousness and debility. 



WHAT IT SHOULD BE. 

The Spring Medicine should be some mild stimulating 
remedy, known to possess qualities of medicinal character, 
and not a vile, nauseating mixture of which you know nothing, 
but a simple, honest, preparation. Herb Remedies are ac- 
knowledged to be the best for such cases, and of these none are 
equal to LINCOLN TEA. 

CERTAIN OITRE FOB SICK HEADACHE. 

—81— 



POSITIVE CURE FOR CONSTIPATION. 

It is mild, pleasant and effective, and is recommended by 
druggists, physicians and people everywhere. 

No remedy in the world is so sure to bring back bloom 
and color into the wan and faded cheeks, the brilliancy to the 
hollow and haggard eyes, the lightness and elasticity to the 
weak and weary steps, the strength and vitality to the un- 
strung, shattered and worn-out nerves. It is, indeed, the 
greatest of all spring medicines, for it makes those who use it 
vrell and strong. 

Beauty lies less in the features than in the condition and 
expression of the face. The Creator has endowed every woman 
with beauty, and every woman in good health, who is of a cheer- 
ful nature, is beautiful and comely to look upon. A clear, fresh, 
wholesome look is the result of the possession of good health, and 
no woman can be beautiful and attractive without good health. 
The dull, dead, gnawing pain, the sense of nervousness, weak- 
ness, oppression and discouragement, the tired, listless, lan- 
guid feeling, the shooting pains, the aching head, pain in the 
back, all these are symptoms of a disordered system, and all 
these are beauty killers, producers of dull, leaden complexions, 
unnatural flushings, dark circles under the eyes, black-heads, 
lustreless eyes and other disfigurements which divest women 
of their natural gift of beauty. Why be homely when you can 
be beautiful and attractive? Get good health, and with it 
those looks and attributes which attract, please and fascinate. 
It is within your power to do so, for it is within every woman's 
power to be well and strong, and hence look her best, if she 
will use LINCOLN TEA to give her strong, vigorous nerves, 
pure, rich blood, a pure complexion, and thus restore the 
energies and vitality of sound and perfect health. 

A deranged stomach cannot digest food properly. Undi- 

CERTAIN CtTRE FOR SICK HEADACHE. 



POSITIVE CUBE FOR CONSTIPATION. 

;?ested food sours or rots in the stomach. That plays havoc 
with the whole of nature's plan of sustaining- life. Gas gene- 
rates and swells the stomach to large proportions. The ner- 
vous system becomes excited. The heart gallops and palpi- 
tates. The liver is overloaded with corrupt matter, the bowels 
are unable to dispose of it fast enough, and the blood is cor- 
rupted. What is to be done? Simply assist the stomach, 
liver and bowels with that greatest of all regulators— LIN- 
COLN TEA. It unloads the bowels, stimulates the liver and 
invigorates the stomach. Nature does the rest. 

Constipation of the bowels is the result or cause of more 
ill health and suffering than almost any other complaint. The 
bowels are to the body what the sewers are to a great city. 
If the sewer is clogged, the deadly gas permeates every house 
and scatters the seeds of all diseases throughout the city. 
Constipated bowels sow the seeds of dyspepsia, liver complaint, 
impure blood, piles, irregular and painful menstruation and 
many other derangements from which women suffer. LIN- 
COLN TEA relieves constipation at once, regulates digestion , 
invigorates the liver, and, by persistent use, makes a perma- 
nent cure. 



OBBTAIN CURE FOR SICK HEADACHE. 
-83— 



Fill a glass or dish with urine and let it stand 
twenty-four hours. If it stains the gloss, or de- 
posits a sediment, there is trouble for you unless 
you have treatment. You may not have kidney 
disease, but you have some derangement of the 
kidneys, liver, stomach or bowels. LTNCOLN 
TEA has cured hundreds of cases oX so-called 
Bright's Disease, simply t)y regulating the diges- 
tion, unloading the bowels and stimulating the 



PART III. 




LINCOLN S EARLY HOME IN ILLINOIS. 




MRS. SAgAH BUSH LINCOLN- 

LinooKs Beloved Stepmother. 



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W. H. HERNDON, 

Lincoln's Law Partner, Springfield, 111 




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